I (and the rest of Deer Camp, my girlfriend Nakiiya and bestie Ben) got back from Pagan Spirit Gathering yesterday, freshly renewed again. I tend to view the Summer Solstice as my "New Year," not because there's any real basis for it in antiquity, but because I go to PSG and it resets my spiritual clock in a way to be surrounded by other Pagans for such an extended period of time. In fact, Deer Camp periodically refers to PSG throughout the year because of the amount of planning and expectation we put into it, and you may have noticed I write more in this blog about this time of year.
Not always good things, unfortunately.
The Camping Stuff and Location
I'll be honest... although I will attempt to go to PSG wherever it winds up, I was not a fan of the new location and pined for Tall Tree Lake. I'm not blaming the organizers (there are a few things I think they should take into much more consideration than they have been, but that's a subject for a different time). A heads up that not only will I talk about a nasty wound in this one, but a lot of my description is colored by the fact that I was very cranky the first couple days (I mellowed out a lot after but the criticism I'm about to give is extremely important).
First off, despite our best attempts at planning, it took us a very long time to get to PSG's new location in Ohio. We had stops planned on the way there that we had to put off until the return trip because apparently accurate GPS reporting of time dies somewhere in central Indiana. We got there early enough to enter the gate but too late to register until the next morning; we also had very few picks for spots because so much camping space had been washed out by rain. We wound up pitching my huge yurt tent on what was basically a mud puddle.
Things got wet very fast and never really dried... drainage just wasn't a thing. My sandals were unwearable within ten minutes and after trying to go the first night barefoot I wound up sinking into the mud where I busted the cuticle of my middle toe... the next day I woke up with nasty pus as I hadn't noticed how much mud was caked into it. Luckily the guardians at the med tent fixed me up, dug out the wound twice (first right after the pus incident and then after the bandaid fell off and I got more nasty mud in it), and applied copious amount of colloidal silver.
I've never made a supply run during PSG before. I like the whole week to be in "Pagan Town Space" and try very hard to pack enough to not leave at all. But we wound up needing to take a supply run... luckily there was a store very near this year and we were able to get rain boots and other stuff we didn't expect to need.
So now that I've given you this initial picture, let's talk a bit about this setting. This campground is probably the least accessible location I've seen PSG be located at. It's on a hill with three flat levels... I was camping on the top level. The middle level--which had the workshops and stage space--was only accessible by golf cart shuttle or a set of muddy stairs flanked by lots and lots of poison hemlock, a plant I'd never seen outside of books before but which I'm rather intimately familiar with now. The lowest level had the vendors (including both Pagan goods and food) and the meeting place, and although there were no stairs between it and the middle level, there was a giant mud puddle between it and the workshop areas, a massive barrier for folks using wheelchairs and any other disability aid.
I also want to talk about the showering situation. The main showering area is a gender neutral group shower, something I didn't know actually existed anywhere, and while I, being a full-on "fuck it" type of trans guy, was pretty comfortable in there, I know that a lot of other trans people weren't (I assume plenty of cis people weren't either, but I noticed particularly with trans people). I'll talk more about that when I talk about considerations festivals need to be making for trans people, which is upcoming. There were alternative showers that were separated, but they had their own problems (the men's only had one shower that wasn't broken, for instance).
After the rain toned down things got a lot better and if PSG is there again next year I'll certainly go... but it's not my favorite location for these reasons and many more.
The Consent Atmosphere
I forgot to write about it last year (despite saying I was going to). PSG and in fact all Pagan spaces I've attended have had some serious problems regarding consent, staring, and touching, especially with folks who decide to go skyclad or topless. I haven't had problems with this for a few years now (I even wore a kilt, which was a big fear of mine because of how many women had been sexually harassing kilted men), although my girlfriend--who enjoys the freedom of going topless in such hot weather--consistently has problems with men leering at her, including a Pagan elder cartoonishly eyeing her up and down like a total creep, leading us to avoid him the rest of the festival. I'm actually extremely upset about this because his work was extremely formative for me as a young Pagan... so it's been a banner year for Pagan figures disappointing the fuck out of me.
Still, I believe that the overall climate has been getting better with regard to this. I'm not well positioned to actually definitively say, though.
Other Stuff I'll (Hopefully) Be Writing About
Look, I can't actually make any genuine human promises here because I write when I want, but these are the other things I do intend to write about when I get bit by the inspiration bug:
- How To Behave Around Skyclad Women - One thing that has happened every goddamn year is somebody will either make my girlfriend extremely uncomfortable or I'll witness some other skyclad woman being treated super creepy. Although I feel like this should be obvious stuff, clearly it's not obvious enough.
- Facilitating Real Trans Inclusion In Pagan Spaces - Since "the incident" in 2012 PSG has been very actively trans inclusive, which I appreciate... but there are some oversights that people made that I want to talk about.
- Why Don't People Of Color Show Up To My Space? - While we were eating we accidentally attended a portion of an extremely awkward event where many white people stumbled to answer a question about racial diversity. This piece will be a collaboration between me and my girlfriend.
- A List Of Things I've Learned I Need At PSG - Any multi-day festival is going to have a packing list... here are the things I've learned I need throughout the years.
- How To Create A Successful Workshop For Pagan Kids - We do at least one kids' workshop every year to fill a wide gap in programming, something I strongly suggest anybody stumped on a workshop do.
Happy Trails,
-- Setkheni-itw
