Pagan Spirit Gathering Celebrating 25 Years!
	The Pagan Spirit Gathering has grown in size and scope over the years, both as an event and as a community. This year’s PSG is the biggest in its history. It also has more program activities and program locations than every before! Authors, musicians, merchants, workshop leaders, and other community members who have been part of past PSG’s are coming together this year for our Enchanted Celebration of PSG’s 25th Anniversary. Some of this year’s activities about PSG history, including sharing of tales at the PSG Memory Tent, at Community meetings, and at other times. PSG began in 1980 as a weekend Summer Solstice festival on private land near Sparta, Wisconsin. Although small, with only ninety people, it brought together Pagans from many states and from many paths. This was a new kind of Pagan gathering that focused on building connections and developing community across traditions and strengthening relationships with the Spiritual dimensions of Nature. Each day we came together as a community in meetings, workshops, and rituals. Festival drumming which is now widespread across Pagan gatherings around the world began at this festival. The next year, June 18-21, 1981, we expanded our Summer Solstice festival by a day, and we increased the number of program activities from a dozen to forty. Our festival also got a new name - I named it the Pagan Spirit Gathering. Our PSG gathering community grew in size to 250 people. We began calling our encampment a magical village, and we established several centers, including the Information Center, the Health Center, and the Childcare Center. We began our worksharing approach to festival staffing, which now has become a standard for festivals put on by other organizations in the USA and elsewhere. Both our 1980 and 1981 gatherings were held at the same site in the forested hills of southwestern, Wisconsin. This was the most rustic of the places where the PSG community has made its home over the years. We hauled in all of our own drinking water, food, and other supplies, and hauled out all our garbage. Toilet options were either the woods with a shovel or a four-seater open-air outhouse. Bathing was in the pond. There was no electricity and no shelters for program activities. There was no program book and no set times for activities. There were only a few workshops and rituals, and nothing was cross scheduled. PSG moved to a new home the following year. This new site was also private land and it was home to PSG in both 1982 and 1983. This gathering place was located in central Wisconsin along the Rock River near Oconomoc, Wisconsin. It was still rustic, with no electricity, drinking water taps, or building shelters. We rented a large circus tent as a shelter, and under the big top we had our merchant booths and some of our meetings and workshops. We trucked in drinking water in 55-gallon drums. We bathed in the river. For the first time, we brought in rented portatoilet units and had a parking lot for participants’ vehicles. Our 1982 PSG was held June 18-23, and our gathering experience expanded to be six days long. We added gatekeepers and lifeguards to the list of community work jobs. We began cross scheduling workshops. We did workshop scheduling and announcing via posters on the bulletin board at the information center. Presenters signed up for slots and locations when they arrived at the festival. The number of program activities increased to more than sixty. In 1983, PSG expanded to a week in length and our numbers grew to more than 450 participants. The Guardians formed and began doing security work for PSG. Merchanting at PSG expanded from a few booths to a marketplace. Our growing village covered the entire site. Also that year, we had a full scale theatrical production for our main ritual, complete with dancers, singers, aspecting priestesses & priests, and more. In June of 1984, PSG moved to a new and bigger place, the big valley of Eagle Cave Campground near Blue River, Wisconsin. This was PSG’s home for thirteen years. PSG grew in scope and size during this time. We added more workshop areas and more centers, including a place for counseling support, known then as the Centering Dome. There was a large cave on site and this was the site of several community rituals, including Dennis’ and my handfasting in 1986. The size of the PSG community grew to more than 700 people in 1996 and we began straining the capabilities of the site. Later that year, the campground went through some transitions and no longer was able to use the big valley for events. Then came the news that the campground owners were scaling back to gatherings of 150 people or less, and the search for a new PSG home began. Some long time PSG community members were among the group which founded the Wisteria land project and community in January 1997. That June, PSG moved to Wisteria’s land in southeastern Ohio. Although not yet developed as a campground, this new site had plenty of flat space for camping and program activities. Initially, the PSG community shrunk in size with this move, but as the site developed its facilities and PSG became established there, the community began growing in size again. This year, we have more than 900 participants. At Wisteria, PSG has matured as a spiritual community. We have expanded not only in size, but in diversity of traditions and ways of collaborating with each other. We have developed new and better ways of functioning as a Community. We have added more centers and a wider range of workjobs. Our PSG Town Council has increased in size, and in 2004, MoonFeather became our PSG Manager, which has helped PSG grow and develop even more. Our educational component now includes a leadershp institute, as well as specialized programming for children, tweens, and teens. The number and type of rituals have grown. We now have a larger marketplace. There is more music by a wide range of performers. In addition, at Wisteria, we have created sacred mounds and new ritual forms, including the candlelight labyrinth. At PSG 2005, as we celebrate our growth and development as a festival and community, let us not only share the memories of the past, but look ahead to the future of our community and of Paganism as a whole. Selena Fox PSG founder -Adapted from the PSG 2005 Community Guide