Pagan in Portland

I have decided to turn this blog into a podcast that includes regular episodes consisting of a main topic and several support segments to keep the show rotating with fresh new material. Segments include;

-Astrological Aspirations:  regular look at the sky, discussing monthly forecast, archetypes and other related topics.

-Musical Talent: showcasing local, Pacific Northwest talent, preferably pagan, spiritual or personal development themed.

-Tarot Trolley: Tarot card pull which will help a fluffy bunny become acquainted with the art.

-The Green Man: Environmental tips to keep green and increase our awareness of our actions, as children of the earth.

-Kitchen Witch of the West: plant medicine, herbal highlights and recipes for pagans.

-Keep Portland Weird: fun, weird things about Portland and it’s surrounding areas. Includes ghost and paranormal stories.

-Portlandia Postage: Answering or reading people’s emails and questions.

-Columbia Corkboard: Promos and commercials, bulletins: highlighting other pagan podcasts or local services and local events.

-Mythological Masters: Understanding symbolism and Deity to expand vocabulary for meditation.

I hope you all will join me! The show can be downloaded directly from itunes by typing in ‘pagan in portland’ or by going to the site that it is hosted at, which is……COMING SOON!

As Saturn disembarks the Virgo train on July 21^st and walks into the golden Libra meadow, I can’t help but reflect on the changes and progress that Saturn has made in my life and in my personal transit.

So what is Saturn characteristic of?

Bringing you back to reality, constriction or stripping away what’s not needed and revealing what’s so. Some people hate this grumpy Grandpa of a planetary influence, but some people realize the value in this force and can learn to appreciate it over time. I was both of these people!

With Saturn in Virgo

It’s about health, service to others and of course work, work, work. I also have a Virgo rising and this transit took place in my first house, the house of self, and the way the world perceives you.

During this period, my health and consciences had shifted enormously. Virgo also rules the delicate digestive system and in this timeframe, I began objectively and honestly listening to my body. I became a vegan, I reduced soy and processed foods, and I detoxified, almost eliminating wheat gluten. I also activated my obsessed passion with nutritional information.

Service to others? I recently read The Better World Handbook (Jones-Ellis) and it ignited developing values, one of those being volunteerism. I realized the value of volunteering and began giving back to my community; I had brief relationships with Forest Park No Ivy League, Oregon Food Bank, Cascade AIDS project and Turtle Ridge Wildlife Refuge. The storm drain of my volunteer efforts collected at Q-Center, where I wore many hats to support the gay community at large, even leading to a coffee cart project that I built, cleverly named Macchiato Moon.

And work you say Virgo? Ha! Two weeks from Saturn shifting into Virgo (September 2007), I became a Starbucks Store Manager. I was a hard worker! I worked a lot, entirely too much. During this transit, my values and how the world sees me (1^st house) had begun a transformation. Alas, seeking a work/life balance, Saturn briefly moved into Libra (balance) in November 2009, at which point I quit Starbucks with an impulsive resignation (Aries Full Moon actually)!

When Saturn moved back into Virgo retrograde, it began a heavy working period once more as I started a new job as a restaurant manager in the RiverPlace Marina district. Hard work ensued as I tried desperately to prepare for Japan; including preparing for school, international travel, packing my condo and working at the same time. While in Japan, 12 credits in 4 weeks is a lot of work! Now as Saturn exits Virgo for good, my life is balanced…maybe! J

So what did the Saturn in Virgo transit mean for my first house Virgo ascendant?

After it entered my first house in September 2007, many friends and associates, including myself, thought that I was experiencing an early Saturn return, as I was only 25-27 years old. But this relentless planet has currently been transiting my first house, the house of self.

Looking back to the start of this transit, most notably in 2008; I noticed revisions in my heart. It seemed to me that my beautiful partner of 8 years suddenly was less important to me as I focused on myself and my own development and growth. To me, it became less about the collective and more about the individual. A temporary remedy was to initiate a three-person relationship, which lasted six months before my partner and I decided that our relationship had reached a successful point and it was time to move on.  Strip 1.

Strip 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6? With the removal of my partner went our condo, our cats and our life together. I also disposed of people in my life that didn’t serve my development as a human being, spending my energy with people that don’t contribute to growth is a waste of my resources.

Strip 7? Starbucks. Saturn moving into Libra in November brought my impulsive move to remove the company that had at one time been a small part of my identity.

Strip 8? Christian dogma that had been plaguing me. I struggled with it at this time as I developed my spirituality rapidly in a public way. I suppose this removal was a positive one to see right away.

Strip 9? Another difficult one, perhaps the most difficult to deal with even now, seven months later. The third boyfriend that my partner and I were involved with, continued a romantic relationship with me. I enjoyed our time together immensely, but without warning and much to my dismay, he terminated that relationship.

So in the middle-to-late transit, I was stripped of those things I thought I was; a partner, a hard-worker, and homeowner, status symbols for sure. It’s time to focus on myself and not someone or something else. And while I miss my cat-babies, my condo, my ex-partner and my ex-boyfriend, I know that it is for the best as I begin to peak behind Saturn’s unyielding curtain at a bright and beautiful golden Libra meadow.

A Pagan in Portland wants to know with Saturn as conductor, where did the Virgo train take you?

That Divine telegram was sent, via my friend Miss Renee, an astrologer and tarot reader whom I met for the first time during a sunny September day in 2009. Her message was about long-distance travel to Japan next year.

My heart skipped a beat! My thirteen year dream of going to Japan was an option? I studied the language both formally and informally for years! I would daydream about home-stay experiences in high school.

After her initial message, Japan started to manifest in other ways. When I would spend time with my friend Akiko, an exchange student, or celebrate the Japnese holiday Shichi-Go-San with Mia, the little girl I babysat. In January, I began looking for jobs in Japan online. At this time I was unemployed and the same week, a call came through for a job I didn’t even apply for, a management position that included a nice salary to actualize my dream.

Messages continued to come my way through people; Japanese strangers, friends, networking acquaintances all presenting different options. The day before my birthday, which included a personal, intension and powerful ritual meditation, I ran into an acquaintance from the Japanese Consulate on my bus home, who reminded me of programs with Portland State University.

I applied that week, the same as the Aries New Moon and was granted a meeting on the following Full Moon (see how that works?), and with little to no effort and I was accepted into a summer program to study at Hokkaido University!

The messages about Japan I had been receiving were that this was the catalyst for a new chapter in my life. With this information, I planned to stay in Japan for as long as I could. What would be this new chapter? Working in Japan? Something international? Teaching? I packed my condo up, cancelled my life in the States and bought a ticket for Japan for as long as the country would allow me stay.

I arrived in Japan and was overwhelmed by the isolation, the schoolwork, the complexity of everyday living and the language! I felt as if I had jumped into the Japanese deep end of the pool and was drowning. While in this state, I began to rethink my goal or chapter in Japan. Maybe the new chapter wasn’t about Japan at all.

Remedying myself with English music, coffee, I Love Lucy episodes, skype, video making and listening to spiritual and pagan podcasts of my favourite podkins (Ariel + Feithline Stewart), I began to feel better. Actually, better than better! In the isolation I found solace. Divine solace! Inspiration began to flow and continued for six days!

Then something came to me in a flash, on the Capricorn Full Moon Lunar Eclipse that took place on June 26^th, I saw it! My life’s path. It simply materialized as an idea not considered: Natural Medicine!

Coming to Japan was not only a beautiful Divine gift, my dream come true, but this trip has helped me to realize a path that combines my lifestyle, belief-systems and passions.

A Pagan in Portland says work toward your goals, even if you don’t know what they are.

Because I am on this path where I feel like the God/Goddess/Universe has a daily lesson plan, I question the reason behind events that may appear contradictory to my goals.

Case in point; my good friend Pam, whom I have known for thirteen years from high school in the Detroit area, has moved across the country to Portland and is living with me in my studio condo.

So why is this a kink in my master plan? Because I am planning to go to Japan, my first thought was ‘oh, I guess now isn’t the best time to go’ or ‘maybe the God/Goddess/Universe actually has other plans for me.’ I mean, she’ll be here until my condo sells, as it sits on the market now and traveling to Japan is pending on the sale.

My Aries sun clouded my understanding of the situation and maybe it was my Virgo logical and analytical rising that broke through the smoke and said “Hey! Sometimes it’s not always about you!” Boy, did I need that alarm call. Maybe this time for Pam in Portland, staying with me without rent and trying to make it on her own is clearly about Pam!

This situation is not without temptation. Having someone in Portland whom I have known for so long is refreshing! Talk of moving into an apartment together and the fun we’ll have has me thinking the opposite of my goal. Wanting to give a hand to my friend and keep her company in a strange land, rather than discover my own strange land.

Perhaps the temptation is meant to test my ambition, validity and the magnitude of this objective.

A Pagan in Portland is expanding his vision to the Universal changes to improve others lives!

This past winter, I’ve been on a journey to ‘Let Go and Let Goddess’. My travels have not been without validation, divine interception and the ebb and flow of energy and universal truth. I’ve been recording my experiences as I present my intentions to the God/Goddess and accepting what’s best for me.

Letting go is no walk in the park. It’s a doubled edge sword really, a swirling mass filled with pleasures, difficult challenges, blind faith and the destroying disassembly of the facets of my life. In January, while on a winter cabin vacation in Bend with my boyfriend and his friends, I asked the God/Goddess that her will be done and the very next day he was gone. An incredible soul that I felt very connected to, a friend for 2 years and a lover for 1. Without warning, without explanation and without further contact, I had to make my journey to ‘Let Go and Let Goddess’ in the dark and with no hand to hold but perhaps maybe the hand of the Mother and Father.

Prior to the departure of my boyfriend, it was the stripping away of my 8-year relationship to my partner, the destruction to my ownership of my home, the exodus of my beautiful cat-babies and the termination of my long-term employment with Starbucks. Coupled with the letting go of negative Christian dogma, mundane dilemmas and people who no longer or never contributed to my development as a person.

I believe with these transformational changes, it opened me up to adventures that have taken me aback almost daily. I’ve become open to the Universe on a path, uncharted. It seems that each day is filled with light, love, the meeting of strangers with a message, experiences with a purpose and a plan aligned with the Goddess.

Wednesday, April 14th was a special day. It was the first New Moon of the astrological year, sometimes referred as the beginning of the New Year. It consisted of the Moon and Sun, both in Aries. And it was my birthday! This special days mediation/ritual work consisted of five intensions for my life in the following year. I made it clear that my intentions are simply MY intentions and are secondary to the plan that the God/Goddess/Universe has for me. My intentions are merely my wishes. They are as follows:

1: Japan; I have acknowledged the divine memos about traveling. I ask for guidance to get there and to find the right people, places and learnings associated with this new chapter.

2: My Ex-boyfriend; who has recently reentered my life. I need clarity regarding his role to my life because the messages I receive are clear about having him in my life in some capacity.

3: Friends with Purpose; I am enjoying the abundance of people I have been meeting and ask to continue to send friends my way that can only make me a stronger person and assist me on my spiritual path work. Also the necessary stripping of those personalities that take away from me.

4: Spiritual Development; as if I could ever get away from this in my life, but I just want to straighten and recognize it, always.

5: My Life’s Plan; a couple of flyers have been pinned to the bulletin board, but I ask for clarity. Again for the right people, the right places, the right experiences to mold the clay of my life’s plan into what the Goddess desires for me and to be executed with little or no sarcasm.

My suggestion for my readers, my friends, is to try to begin to look at experiences in life for what they are. Be positive and remember that what you put out, comes back. Yes, karma. It’s totes for real ya’ll. Record your experiences and look for the learning in each one. Be open, be open, be open!

What are some of your occurrences with the Universe and just letting go?

A Pagan in Portland says feng shui your universal karma, let it go and enjoy this ride! And always remember to breathe.

Boston shines as an Irish Catholic. Lubbock boosts being Baptist. New York is a jovial Jew. Detroit has it’s Islamic influence. Hollywood loves Kabblah. If cities could be religiously personified, what about the emerald city we call Portland Oregon? I feel like being a pagan for me is highly represented by the spirit of the city of Portland, or Portlandia as we sometimes refer to her as. People living here understand and honor the true meaning of being children of the earth; So why is Portland so pagan?

The planet is important to us pagans and in Portland, we recycle like there ain’t no tomorrow—literally! Composting and all. Business too! Creative reprocessing of items, such as reusing take-out hinged containers for work lunches, or reusing glass jars for drinking mugs—that saves the planets resources in two ways!  I save napkins and plastic wear that I must use, and reuse at home. Or save used gift cards and rework as luggage tags! What weird creative things do you do? Please share!

Community is a fundamental pagan value. As a practice of ancient times, community was all we had. We relied on the integral support of a larger community for the micro and macro health of everyone involved. The city of roses has a large significance to building community on so many levels such as events that are city-wide, neighborhood-wide, block-wide, apartment building-wide and friends-wide. Community volunteerism or even volunteering with friends to trade services or to help move apartments is popular. People will help other people out here, supporting causes, supporting each other or even marching together on PSU campus to demonstrate against a recent Bush administration policy!

Protecting the earth even through industrialization with alternative thinking concerning  energy needs; wind turbines on housing units and large buildings, people building rainwater collectors for water use, solar panels used on homes and for car parking meters. I’ve heard of a few people, and have even seen someone who has removed their drive-way to their home to put in a garden, now that’s totes rad!

Another example of our commitment to our Earth Mother, alternative transportation; MAX light-rail, aerial tram, bus, streetcar and commuter trains. Also cycling! Portland is the countries number one cycling city! I am a commuting cyclist myself and millions of dollars are invested in bicycle infrastructure. Anyone out there participate in the annual NAKED bike ride? Yeah…it’s legal! (and they post pics online!)

With respect to nature spirits: laws against urban sprawl restricts the city from building outward, which will destroy parks, farms and rural areas. Park clean-up volunteer groups are popular and Portland boosts the countries largest urban park, Forest Park, and the countries smallest urban park. (I heard the downtown-based Portland’s smallest park has fae living there!)

A collective spiritual mind: Many, many people I have encountered since 2006 seem to have a collective respect for spiritual modalities that are occult-like; tarot, astrology, observing and celebrating the season changes, observing pagan sabbats (minus the label), mind, body and spirit focuses with yoga, whole foods and drum circles! Moon cycle observations are not uncommon either.  Lunar seed cycling anyone?

FOOD! Portland is such a foodie town, no doubt. But why is Portland’s attitude to food a pagan quality? Because as children of the earth, we should respect our bodies and love them, giving our temples what they need to function properly. This basic human pleasure is a gift from the Father or Sun and our Mother or Earth. Portland is HUGE on organic, hormone free foods from cheese, milk, meat, veggies and grains! Many restaurants, food cart vendors and grocery stores are aware of this trend. Also, vegan, organic and raw restaurants are plentiful and popular! Awareness of how our bodies respond to food is also evident in the rise of gluten-sensitive, milk-sensitive and soy-sensitive people in Portland and many people and food establishments are peachy keen to this issue. Respect for our bodies and the energies we consume are a focus with many residents. I could go for some raw live pizza from Blossoming Lotus in Irvington or up on Alberta for a gluten-free, vegan grilled cheese from Grilled Cheese Grill!

Local purchases help to strengthen the local web. We are all connected and this is a cornerstone pagan belief as it pertains to the web of life. Purchasing locally from a farmers market or for clothing, or goods, or services is a strong Portland value. ‘Keep Portland Weird’ is popular tag-line as evident by bumper stickers that adorn cars, bikes, bike racks, traveler mugs, guitar cases and abandon buildings, is actually a local business initiative. I believe the local government has also put forth ordinances restricting how many “chain” business’ are inside the city! Where the hell can I buy a Chinese manufactured quesadilla maker at my local 24-hour WalMart?! Next time you take a walk in the city, look around. Next time you talk to your neighbor, listen closely. Next time you take a local bit, savor gently. Next time you think about our city, consider it as a living, breathing entity and what does the energy of this city say to you?

A Pagan in Portland wants you to know that our city rides a broom stick, ya’ll!

There’s something to be said for repetition, especially those of ideas, messages, experiences that come into your life that hint at a life’s purpose.

TEACHING: Mine has been teaching since I was five! Being a teacher was my goal as a child until my high school days when it was consumed by a love of art techniques and Japanese language. Still coming back to teaching every once in a while as an adult.

SPIRITUALITY: Mine has also been spirituality since I was five! Having metaphysical/spiritual encounters at a young age. To learn more about what I was experiencing, I reached out to the modality readily available at the time, Christianity, at age six.

Never did I like “children’s church” or songs, NEVER, I attended “Adult Service”, I read that Old Testament during summer vacations as a single-digit individual, I changed my Christian identity a few times to get a varied experience and all on my own accord! When I was 13, a prophetical message came from a man about my being a spiritual teacher. And once again, another prophetical message was delivered via a stranger while working at Barnes + Noble ten years later.

I left Christianity at 20 and began studying other paths and ideologies. I thirst for spiritual knowledge. Astrology was another outlet that further reinforced this notion. The 4 astrological bodies in my 9th house and other aspects that are unrelated are saying something, something amazing! Having learned this TONIGHT at my meetup.com astrology group which meets in Hollywood, I’m reflecting now…

Last night, I had dinner with a friend, who lives in Laurelhurst, who had a message for me. He recently returned from a life-changing honeymoon trip to Thailand and felt he needed to see me to deliver a message. After talking for over an hour and moving into a clearing of a golden spiritual meadow that had lie untouched between the two of us, my friend discovered the message “Jaysen, you’re a shaman!”

A Pagan in Portland wants to know…What’s a shaman?…Where’s my dictionary at?

Where to begin?! I haven’t blogged in almost two months and things move so rapidly, I need to get better at this!

Since last autumn, 2009, I have been receiving messages about going to Asia for a spiritual purpose. Some sort of purpose. My first message came via Renee Dunn, a beautiful and wonderfully gifted local tarot reader and astrologer who mentioned higher learning and traveling in Asia sometime in 2010.

A few more small flashes occurred whether spending time with my friend Akiko talking Japanese in Washington Park or through other small daily affirmations left me looking for jobs via Craigslist.org in January. After instead accepting a position in Portland, my mother was the one who offered me the advise of saving money while I worked out a plan.

Another flash came as I met a girl on the bus, a nihonjin (Japanese person) and she was with a Portland homestay company called ANDEO with homestays and schools in Fukouka, the same city I want to live in, where my friend Akiko is!

Penny after penny later…(pennies are most simple, long-running and abundant affirmation), more Japan flashes came about that I can’t ignore anylonger.

Tonight, I met with a friend of mine I’ve known for two years. He and his partner just returned from their Thailand honeymoon. He was filled with such spiritual inspiration and wonderment that it can’t be expressed with words. We connected on such a deep and profound level tonight unlike ever before. We were comfortable sharing spiritual stories with each other that few people heard, he shared his altar space with me, his astrology information and his divination set. And he introduced me to the thought of Thailand…isn’t that the Asian country Miss Renee first mentioned to me?!….I think it is.

He also introduced me to the idea of shamanism, giving me a message pertaining to the practice and teaching of this ancient….art? I don’t really know much about shamanism and won’t pretend to know!

Huh.

A Pagan in Portland has a lot to consider. Where does clarity come from when you have a multitude of options, like the non-marshmallow pieces of Lucky Charms cereal? Stay tuned…

My second sabbat on my open and public pagan path! I did some research from a google search. I found traditional celebration tools for the holiday;

Incense:
 Basil, bay, benzoin, cinnamon, myrrh, vanilla, violet

Herbs: 
Angelica, basil, bay, benzoin, heather, myrrh, rowan, dill.

Colors:
 White, silver, pale yellowSymbols of the season:

Candles, brides, grain dollies, burrowing animals, ewes, Brighid’s cross, priapic wands, brooms

Traditional foods:
 Cheese, recipes using sour cream or marscapone, yogurt, curries,  fish, white meat, dishes containing onions, peppers and/or garlic, spiced wine, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, muffins, scones, rice pudding, poppy seeds, poultry, foods or breads containing raisins, herbal tea

Saturday, I embarked out to New Renaissance Book Store in NW Portland. I purchased cinnamon and vanilla incense, more candles and myrrh to burn in an oil. Then on to Trader Joe’s in NW and Whole Foods in the Pearl. Here, I purchased ingredients for special meal preparations as well as white flowers for my alter.

Sunday, I spent a large part of the day cooking rice pudding using raisins and cinnamon, french onion soup with basil, thyme, garlic and bay and I made mini pearl onions sauteed with whole garlic, white wine, dill, basil and thyme. Because I am vegan, I made all dishes without animal products. Very fun. I tested the meal on a potluck I attended Sunday night, but had some left over for my sabbat.

On Monday night, I ate my prepared meal with white wine and while listening to Ariel’s ‘Bridgit’, a craft music podcast song he made and I listened over and over. Then I made crafts! I planted three pots each with a white flowering seedling. I choose three areas of my life I wanted to grow; spirituality, friendship and career and imagined those items coming into fruition as I planted, then I said a prayer before moving on to the next item. I also painted a white Imbolc symbol on two of the planters.

I took a burlap sack, three ears of corn and white paint and painted the Imbolc symbol on the sack, then I glued the corn on the sack to symbolize the child, mother and crone. I put this on my door, outside.

I put out a cloth on the fire escape to catch healing powers of Bridget. I lit every candle in the house and I did a meditation. Because I am recording this a few days later, it might be hazy. I went to the “solstice” garden I was familiar with in a previous meditation. Only the holly brick at the head of the gate was not holly anymore, but something to symbolize Imbolc. I walked the left path up the hill and met Bridget! She was wearing a white robe with a white crown of flowers. Red firey hair and fair skin. (I was also wearing white.) She walked me into the Celtic land and down the path. We examined the metal object, a reoccurring object, but I was still unable to see what it was. When we reached the second Celtic cross, we took off together, flying high to the circular grove of trees.

There I talked and asked questions but didn’t hear answers. I remember her telling me to meditate more and resume my fire exercises again…the physical items I was doing to help my elemental body. Somehow I was back in the garden, outside the gate and I went to the right outside the wall and came to a open meadow with tall grass with Bridget as a younger version. We both seemed to be 18 years old. We laughed and played in the grass, rolling around at one point.

In a different way, I saw the woman I see often, Alexandria(?). I asked her name and she told me “Alexandria” and I asked if she was my mentor and I didn’t hear an answer. She was sitting beneath me and was submissive of sorts, she wasn’t in front of me, but beside me. She is always in a white dress and robe with black hair flowing hair. Kinda looked like Brigit too.

After my meditation, I went into the bath with fresh whole basil, and a chamomile and peppermint tea bag and myrrh oil. While in the tub, I felt so inspired, that I wrote a poem about Bridgit based off my meditation and here it goes:

Imbolc

Bridget

crone of wise daughter of joy woman of strength must you be so coy?

you take me through the celtic grass and fly above until we pass into a circular grove of trees I sit in front of the Goddess on my knees

emotions high, the thanks I give she smiles and speaks, and the wisdom I shall live

Bridget

in the sun, we laugh in the meadow three seeds I lay, I breathe, I sow

my intentions are clear and i manifest just before she can rest birth is given to a beautiful son of lamb I am ready and willing Bridgit here I am.

That night, I slept with the ‘STAR’ Tarot card under my pillow.

A Pagan in Portland wishes everyone a happy and safe Imbolic

Hello everyone,

Allow me in introduce myself. I haven’t been shown a magickal name yet, so I’ll introduce myself as Pluto, a name I’ve used to tag myself in creative projects since 1997. I am a 26-year old gay male, originally from Detroit, Michigan, now living in Portland, Oregon since 2006.

I was a self-inflicted evangelical Christian for 14 years. Although, I was still the black sheep in the flock, asking questions, dying my hair blue, red, green or black, wearing big pants and fish-nets on my arms; challenging the conventional look of most Christians, which made people uncomfortable. I came out in 1999, while a Sophomore in High School and was immediately released from so much depression, negativity and self-hatred instilled in me by the Church.  I still identified as Christian until 2002.

While I was a Christian, I still saw signs of interest in something different. I had a love affair with the Moon, studied astrology, had a mild interested in the occult and honoured the beauty of nature and the Divine Feminine. In 2001, I moved to Phoenix, Arizona after graduating High School and began a love affair with the desert and one last brush with Christianity. Following the hail-storms of Christians Vs. Gays in media coverage, I couldn’t be apart of a group of people that shopped at Wal-Mart, voted for Bush, disregarded global warming as ‘end times’, sometimes violently prosecuted others for being different and drove SUVs.

I dropped it all within a year. In 2003, I moved back to Detroit from missing my family and friends. I got a job at Barnes & Noble, in the Cafe and my boss, Julianne was a Pagan. I desired her way of life, but didn’t understand what was different. I idolized her and loved her so much without understanding why. After visiting her home and observing her, I discovered it had to be an earth religion. One day, she moved to Pittsburgh for another job at which time she came out of the broom closet, but I had already known.

Even after a short visit to her new home in 2005, she gave me a small pocket book about Neo-Paganism after I had been studying Judiaism out of curiosity. My short-lived brush with her lifestyle was refreshing and intriguing, introducing myself to grounding and chakra meditations and Tarot. I read the Neo-Paganism book with interest, but shortly set my sights for Oregon. I put Neo-Paganism on hold to study Buddhism after my former partner Silas had been studying.

We moved to Portland in July of 2006 and I began working on a career that consumed me. It consumed me in so many aspects of my life that I eventually dissolved my 8-year relationship with Silas and I quit my job to rediscover myself. Reenter the Pagan.

My partner and I separated in August of 2009. After doing some soul-searching, the Goddess was just calling to me. I picked up the 2 books I had on the subject and reread them both. After the passing of Mabon, I saw Miss Renee, a Tarot and Astrology reader, who gave me wonderful insight into my life’s direction and my spirituality. I began a more intensive study and celebrated Samhain as Dias de la Muertos.

Determined to intensify my study and get my life back, I quit my job in November and began listening to Pagan Podcasts, particularly A Pagan in the Threshold by MeadowMoon and A Witch’s Primer by Ariel of the DCW. I booked a trip to Pittsburgh to see my Pagan influence, Julianne, Detroit to see my family and friends and Phoenix, the desert I once cherished. After spending time with family, friends and myself, I was ready to commit to living a life filled with purpose, truth and love.

I continue to receive insight and wisdom everyday.

A Pagan in Portland invites you to join me on my new path and discover what it means to be a pagan in Portland!