Gaea

Many of you who are reading this are or will be attending the Heartland Pagan Festival. The festival is big and there are a lot of things going on. You should have no problem occupying your weekend with workshops, rituals, concerts, drumming, dancing, lectures, catching up with old friends and making new ones.
Along with enjoying the activities and the people, I would urge you to take the time to get to know the place on which it is held- Camp Gaea. Maybe you are not from the area, are new to the community, or are one of the folks who only gets out to Camp once a year for the fest. Please allow me to take a moment to tell you about it.
Camp Gaea is not just a campground HSA rents out each year. Gaea is a retreat center that is available and utilized year round. She is open to the public and, for a very reasonable fees are welcome. Traditionally a sanctuary for practitioners of various forms of alternative lifestyles and/or spirituality, Gaea is not just for Pagans.
Camp has actually been around since the 1920's and has gone through various incarnations as a church camp, a nudist area, and its present incarnation. Take a moment to feel the energy and you will know, as I do, that this place has been a site of spirituality and community since the times of the Ancients.
Camp Gaea is managed by a corporation called Earth Rising. This is, in fact, what makes Camp unique among this sort of retreat center. All others are privately owned and affiliated with a certain group while Camp is corporately owned and managed by group representing a cross-section of the groups it serves.
A single caretaker lives on site but there are no paid employees. All of the endless, backbreaking, and, many times, thankless work it takes to run and maintain Camp Gaea is done by a very small group of volunteers. It is awe inspiring when you think of all it takes just to keep the buildings sound, the roads drivable, and the ditches cleaned, let alone handling disasters like the pavilion collapse a few years ago and making improvements like the bath house and the new (and much safer) stairs. This handful of people does it all while somehow meeting all of the financial obligations Camp faces. It may not be flashes and puffs of smoke but there is no arguing that it is magick.
Why they do it is no secret- it is for the love of the land. Those of us who are privileged enough to call Gaea our spiritual home understand this all too well. In your short visit with all the frenetic activity going on around you, there may be no time for you to get to know her the way we do and I wish there were some way to convey it to you.
You see, many people who come to the fest don't understand that Gaea is sacred land. They don't know that she is as sacrosanct as our homes. They don't realize that her wooded glens are our church and her stones our altars. They don't comprehend that, when they disrespect the Land they are disrespecting our Mother.
I know the folks at HSA handed you a whole sheaf of rules. They are obligated to do so. However, the rules of Camp Gaea are simple: Respect the land, respect others, and respect yourself. Not bad rules to follow no matter where you are.
Have a blast at the fest. Throw off the shackles of the mundane world and just enjoy being a Pagan- whatever that means to you. Be sure to bid generously at the Silent Auction and to throw something in the Wishing Well down by the Dining Hall.
I would urge you, also, to come back when things are quieter. Take some time to walk the trails, swim in the lake, and enjoy the energy of the sacred places. Get to know the real Camp Gaea and the healing, rest, and inspiration she can give you.

- The Pendragon

posted by The Pendragon at 8/08/2003 06:54:00 PM