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Spirit Haven, Inc (previously the Council of Magickal Arts, Inc.) is a Pagan, 501(c)3 multicultural organization that is committed to fostering spirituality. They provide a haven for community and celebration to support and promote the well-being of a diverse membership, as well as the local and greater community.
"In the Spring of 1980, I made contact outside of my coven with several people prominent in the Craft whom I had been hearing about, putting together faces and names. We saw the need for a working network/council through which anyone who needed special help could send an SOS.
We got together at Samhain 1980 for a meeting and ritual to form the council. It was named 'The Council of the Mystic Arts' in order to assure our friends and connections with Christian and Buddhist leanings that they were welcome to be a part of the network."
- Bertie Estes, CMA's first Director
Written in 1997
At the May 5, 1981 Beltane meeting there were representatives from nine covens present. At the end of the first year, Bertie Estes from San Antonio, who was the first Director/Editor [of the Accord], passed on the job to me. When I took over the responsibility of Director/Editor, there was $28.90 in the Treasury and probably 20-25 members.
We changed the name from the Council of the Mystic Arts to the Council of the Magickal Arts at Samhain 1981 because the membership at that time felt "Magickal" more adequately described what we were all about. By October 1983, we had 18 individual and/or group memberships with over $200 in the Treasury.
- Judy Carusone, Director 1981-83, Editor 1981-1990
Written in 1992
The Accord was the quarterly periodical of the corporation, and contains a wide range of articles by members. In the past The Accord was a medium quality magazine periodical with national distribution, but printing costs and the expenses of land ownership have caused CMA to move to a paperless, online publication
Spirit Haven hosts a Beltane and Samhain Festival every year. Beltane is generally held on the 3rd full weekend of April, and Samhain is generally held on the 3rd full weekend of October. This allows for members of Spirit Haven to celebrate the solar holidays in their own personal ways and to not compete with other pagan festivals and events that are of interest to their membership. Spirit Haven, Inc is known for their Beltane and Samhain Festivals.
For many years the festivals were held at a commercial camping property in the hill country of Austin, Texas. In 1999 CMA purchased land of their own, called Spirit Haven Ranch located near the community of Cistern in Central Texas.
A typical festival starts with setup on Wednesday for vendors and early arrivals. The main attendees arrive on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Each night a public main ritual is held, presented by different volunteer members and their groups (covens, kindreds, groves, etc.), and, weather permitting, a bonfire (Revel) is lit. The bonfire serves as the main public area for those who wish to stay up late into the night, drumming, dancing, and talking. Personal and group campsites also host gatherings at night.
During the daylight hours of Friday and Saturday, a full schedule of workshops are presented, some by members and some by guest presenters which, in the past, has included such notables as Diana L. Paxson, Patricia Telesco, Fritz Jung and Wren (of The Witches' Voice), Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart, and more.
Along with the workshops and the evening rituals and bonfire, the main stage is used to present regional and national Pagan artists, such as; Wendy Rule, Tuatha Dea, Ginger Doss, Dreamtrybe (formerly Velvet Hammer), Canvas, Spoonfed Tribe, SONA, Lisa Thiel, Darwin Davis, Spiral Dance, Marquis of Vaudeville, Rosegarden Funeral Party, and others.
The corporation's business meeting, called Great Works, is held on Sunday after the festival.
Often referred to as, simply, "The Land", Spirit Haven Ranch is 101 acres (0.41 km2) located in Flatonia, Texas. While improvements have been made, such as a water well and electricity, the land is mostly rough. The camping areas are wooded with native trees, while the Sacred Spaces are more densely wooded with oaks and other native trees.
Maintenance between festivals, and the majority of the work to ready the land for each festival, is done by the volunteers of the Spirit Haven Ranch Team, and all members are welcome to come out on the Workend as part of the team, as well as interested persons wanting to learn more about Spirit Haven, Inc.
Tent camping is the primary form of lodging available at Spirit Haven Ranch. RV space is limited and with limited amenities depending on your RV's requirements. Members may steward campsites on a yearly basis, ensuring their group's placement during Festivals. These sites are reserved for the campsite steward and members they invite to camp with them. [1]
Beltane or Bealtaine is the Gaelic May Day festival, marking the beginning of summer. It is traditionally held on 1 May, or about midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Historically, it was widely observed in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In Ireland, the name for the festival in both Irish and English is Bealtaine. In Scottish Gaelic it is called Latha Bealltainn, and in Manx Gaelic Laa Boaltinn/Boaldyn. Beltane is one of the four main Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Samhain, Imbolc, and Lughnasadh—and is similar to the Welsh Calan Mai.
May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's Spring equinox and June solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. Traditions often include gathering wildflowers and green branches, weaving floral garlands, crowning a May Queen, and setting up a Maypole, May Tree or May Bush, around which people dance and sing. Bonfires are also a major part of the festival in some regions. Regional varieties and related traditions include Walpurgis Night in central and northern Europe, the Gaelic festival Beltane, the Welsh festival Calan Mai, and May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has also been associated with the ancient Roman festival Floralia.
Samhain, Sauin or Oíche Shamhna is a Gaelic festival on 1 November marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or "darker half" of the year. It is also the Irish language name for November. Celebrations begin on the evening of 31 October, since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals along with Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lughnasa. Historically it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. A similar festival is held by the Brittonic Celtic people, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales.
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by a range of modern pagans, marking the year's chief solar events and the midpoints between them. Modern pagan observances are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of the historical practices of world civilizations. British neopagans popularized the Wheel of the Year in the mid-20th century, combining the four solar events marked by many European peoples, with the four midpoint festivals celebrated by Insular Celtic peoples.
A bonfire is a large and controlled outdoor fire, used either for informal disposal of burnable waste material or as part of a celebration.
Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship, Inc. is a non-profit religious organization based in the United States, dedicated to the study and further development of modern Druidry.
The Covenant of the Goddess (CoG) is a cross-traditional Wiccan group of solitary Wiccan practitioners and over one hundred affiliated covens. It was founded in 1975 in order to increase co-operation among witches and to secure for witches and covens the legal protection enjoyed by members of other religions. Member covens generally focus theology and ritual around the worship of the Goddess and the Old Gods, which is general practice within Wicca. The Covenant of the Goddess operates largely by consensus and maintains strict autonomy for all members.
The Starwood Festival is a seven-day New Age neopagan and world music festival. It takes place every July in the United States. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects. There are also live musical performances, rituals, bonfires, multimedia presentations and social activities. It is a clothing optional event, and skyclad attendance is common.
Herman Slater was an American Wiccan high priest and occult-bookstore proprietor as well as an editor, publisher, and author. He died of AIDS in 1992.
Beltane Fire Festival is an annual participatory arts event and ritual, held on 30 April on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
Pagan's Night Out, or PNO, is a regularly scheduled social get-together, usually monthly, held in hundreds of Pagan and Neopagan communities around the world. It began in Houston, Texas, in 1992 as a way for users of the Brewers' Witch BBS to meet face to face, Pagan's Night Out has become a worldwide phenomena. Held in bars, pubs, coffee shops, cafes, restaurants and meeting halls, PNO is a social event for Wiccans, Asatruar, Thelemites, Druids, Setians and the hundreds of other Neopagan sects and sub-divisions.
Circle Sanctuary is a non-profit organization and legally recognized neopagan church based in southwestern Wisconsin, US. It aims to encourage community celebrations, spiritual healing, research, networking and education.
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Philip Shallcrass, often known by his Druid name, Greywolf, is Chief of the British Druid Order. He is an English artist, writer, poet, musician and singer-songwriter who pioneered a "shamanic" Druidism.
The Bricket Wood coven, or Hertfordshire coven is a coven of Gardnerian witches founded in the 1940s by Gerald Gardner. It is notable for being the first coven in the Gardnerian line, though having its supposed origins in the pre-Gardnerian New Forest coven. The coven formed after Gardner bought a plot at the Fiveacres Country Club, a naturist club in the village of Bricket Wood, Hertfordshire, southern England, and met within the club's grounds. It played a significant part in the history of the neopagan religion of Wicca.
The Pan Pagan Festival (PPF) is one of the United States's first and longest running nature spirituality festivals, organized by the Midwest Pagan Council that spans from Wednesday through Sunday in late July or early August each year. The first Pan Pagan festival was held in 1976 as a way of bringing different groups together to share knowledge and experience. The festival grew each year until 1980 which was the largest Pagan gathering ever held up to that time, with an attendance of almost 600, including Raymond Buckland, Isaac Bonewits, Z Budapest, Herman Slater, Prudence Priest, Margot Adler, and Selena Fox. From the Pan Pagan Festival other festivals grew including Circle's Pagan Spirit Gathering and Chrysalis Moon.
SONA was a neopagan music band that toured and performed at neopagan gatherings and other events throughout the Midwestern United States during the early 2000's. SONA consisted of three members Beltana Spellsinger, "Papa" Joe Credit and his son Joe Credit III. They were sometimes referred to as "the Peter, Paul and Mary of Pagan music."
Rhiannon Ryall is the pseudonym of an English-born Australian Wiccan who achieved notoriety for her controversial claims regarding the existence of a group of Wiccans living in England's West Country during the 1940s. These claims were first publicised in 1993 when the English company Capall Bann published Ryall's West Country Wicca: A Journal of the Old Religion, in which she made the claims that when growing up along the borders between the English counties of Devon and Somerset, she was initiated into a local Wiccan tradition that many of the people in the surrounding villages were members of. Claiming that they were "pre-Gardnerian", she asserted that her family had not been Wiccan, and as such she was not a hereditary witch, but that aged sixteen, she, like many other boys and girls who were the same age, were taken to the female "Elders of the village" who taught them about the Craft.
Beltania is an alternative festival held each year in Colorado. Approximately 450–750 attendees come to celebrate Beltane, also known as May Day. It is a musicfest with several days of diverse performances and also a spiritual retreat focusing on Earth consciousness and the modern nature-based spirituality movement.