Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth

In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.

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If You Could Live in an All-Pagan World, Would You Do It?

If you could live in an all-pagan world, would you do it?

Of course you would. So would I. Any pagan would.

That's why I love pagan festivals so much. What they offer is the opportunity to live in that ideal pagan world, if only for a little while.

That summer, the festival was only 40 minutes out of town: an easy striking distance, one might think. Well, but I couldn't get the time off work.

I was waiting tables that year at a little jazz club cum restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. At the time, our cobblestone patio was the only outdoor dining venue in the area. We were packed every night. The work was grueling, relentless, nightmarish; only the money made it worthwhile.

Every night was all hands on deck. There was absolutely no way to take time off for a festival, because there was no one to cover for me.

So I decided to commute.

Every morning, I drove out to the festival and immersed myself in the nurturing waters of pagan culture. Then I'd drive back to town and deal with the teeming cowan masses.

“This is going to be the worst,” I thought.

But I was wrong.

There I was, every night, in an aureole of golden festival energy, my witch-fires stoked high. I was golden, I glowed: you could see the light from the next room. The cowans didn't know what hit them. Night after night, tips just rained down onto the tables. In my entire wait career, I'd never made so much money.

It should have been awful, but it wasn't. I danced my way through that week, elegant as hell and utterly unstoppable.

Once we lived in an all-pagan world. Now we don't. Some of us have the audacity to dream that, some day, we will again.

Meanwhile, we have festivals.

Let the cowans beware.

 

 

 

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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

  • Aline "Macha" O'Brien
    Aline "Macha" O'Brien Monday, 24 June 2019

    Fantastic, Steven!

    I just got back from the Michigan Pagan Festival, where I was a presenter. A vibrant pan-Pagan scene, lovely folks, and only short commute (for me) from hotel to fairgrounds. I think you may be hearing from them.

    xo

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