MIAMI–Why should members of the Pagan community suffer an empty rice bowl? Aragorn Vitali wants to remedy that. He is leading a series of seminars covering professional development topics geared towards helping members of the Pagan community to find employment or better economic opportunities. 

Aragorn’s message and enthusiasm are clear as he warms to his topic, “A LOT of people in our religious community are not really working to the capacity that they could be or earning as much as they would like to. Quite frankly a lot of us are either underemployed or unemployed. Until we are in a better economic situation as a community, there are a lot of things that will be very difficult for us to achieve.”

Those of you who were able to catch Aragorn’s first topic, “Marketing Yourself Effectively Through Your Résumé, Cover Letters and Post-interview Thank You Letters,” were able to hone résumé skills , develop strategies in targeting interests and skill sets, and learned how to communicate your value to prospective employers. The next seminar, which will be held on April 19th, will develop critical interviewing skills—one of the make or break factors in landing the job or negotiating better terms. Aragorn comments, “ Sometimes a coveted position doesn’t go to the better qualified person, but rather the person who was more successful in selling themselves, in selling their value to their prospective employer.” He knows what he is talking about. Aragorn is a member of the Professional Association of Résumé Writers and Career Coaches (PARW/CC) and has been working at a university career center for the past five years.

Some astrologers use the cycles of mars and jupiter to foretell job opportunity cycles, in addition to other factors on the birth chart.

Nabila, an attendee, was enthusiastic about his first seminar, “What Aragorn is offering is a tremendous asset to our community. I am excited about going to his next seminar on interview skills!”

Aragorn winds up, “The truth of the matter is that you have to set the right foundation for any magickal work that you do; doing magick can be very beneficial, but only if you look after the practical aspect first. If you perform a great rite for fertility but do not prepare the ground, sow the seeds, and tend the field first, all that fertility magick will only create a bumper crop of weeds.” Aragorn provides the tools to accomplish this in his seminars, and he offers his extensive experience as a resource for the Pagan.

The next seminar, “Preparation and Strategies for a Successful Job Interview” is on Thursday, April 19th, at 8 p.m. It will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Miami located at 7701 SW 76th Avenue. Seminars last from an hour to an hour and a half. There is a 5 dollar fee to cover the rental of the space. Future topics will also include Networking and Job Seeking in the Internet Age. Make your job search a success and attend!

Details about the event are posted in the South Florida Pagan Meetup page, http://www.meetup.com/witches-729/events/58999432/ or you may contact Aragorn at VitalResume@Gmail.com

For more information about Aragorn Vitali, visit his LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/aragorn-vitali/2b/263/249

FLORIDA – March is usually the kick off of the Spring (Ostara to Beltaine) festival season here in Florida, offering a variety of venues and locations for Floridians as well as Pagans and Wiccans visiting us before the long hot summer months begin. 

In mid-March, we kicked off the season with the increasingly popular Florida Faerie Festival (Bonita Springs), along with Ostara Nights (Bonita Springs), the Green Song Grove Ostara (St. Petersburg), and the various CUUPS Ostara celebrations in various locations throughout Florida.

Unfortunately, a muse can only be in one location at a time, so we celebrated a wonderful Ostara with Phoenix Phyre in the Lakeland area.  It was a truly magickal experience for our festival tribe, The Abyss, as well as our children.  The venue was wonderful and the event workshops and entertainment were well-planned and organized with favored Florida headliners such as Lord Alexian, Kyrja & Randy with Rupert’s Tales, Grandmother Elspeth & Nybor, Lord Cheiron, John Grastorf, Tribal Soup Drum Group, and Grey Ghosthawk.

The main ritual was entitled The White Goddess ritual and was hosted by Belladonna Laveau, who will become the Archpriestess of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, Intl. in Litha of 2012, along with her working partner Dusty Dionne of the WISE tradition of British Traditional Witchcraft.

Phoenix Phyre 2012, Lakeland, Florida.

Phoenix Phyre is now a community run organization and staff were extremely hospitable and not only welcomed, but encouraged suggestions and inquiries.

The Spring Festival Season still holds plenty of opportunities for more celebrations through Beltaine including the popular Florida Pagan Gathering in Ocala during the first week of May.  This year the scheduled headliners include Raven & Stephanie Grimassi, Donald Michael Kraig, and Orion Foxwood.  Musical headliners include S.J. Tucker (a/k/a Skinny White Chick), the Dragon Ritual Drummers, and Martin “Greywolf” Murphy.  With this lineup of talent, FPG is sure to be an experience not to be missed this Beltaine and we have never been disappointed in our many past visits to FPG.

Another event to keep in mind is the relatively new 05/11 – 05/12/12 Bonita Springs ~ Flowstival by The Gulf Coast Drum Foundation from May 11 to May 12 in Bonita Springs.  Although it is just getting on its feet by Pagan festival terms, rumors in the community indicate it might be an upcoming festival to keep an eye on in the future.

So enjoy some of these upcoming events during the Spring festival season this year in before turning back to the air conditioning during our long, hot summer here in Florida.

April 2012 Events:

04/06 – 04/08/12 Plant City – Writers Retreat at All World Acres

04/06 – 04/08/12 Double Secret Location ~ Annual Retreat of the Everglades Moon Local Council Covenant Of The Goddess

04/12 – 04/15/12 Bonita Springs – Beltaine Flame – CANCELLED for 2012

04/12 – 04/15/12 Plant City – Beltainia at All World Acres

04/12 – 04/15/12 Bowden, Georgia – Hawkfest Dragon Hills Retreat

04/28 – 04/28/12 Fort Lauderdale ~ MoonPath CUUPS Open Ritual to celebrate Beltaine ~ Festival and Open Ritual.

04/13 – 04/15/12 St. Petersburg – Green Song Grove Beltaine and Grand Sabbat

04/27 – 04/29/12 Silver Springs – Paralounge Drum Gathering

May 2012 Events:

05/03 – 05/06/12 Ocala – Florida Pagan Gathering Beltaine

05/05 – 05/05/12 Jacksonville ~ Jacksonville Zombie Walk ~ Night of the Living Dead Zombie Walk & Art Show/Auction at the Phoenix Taproom with benefits to save the Evans City Cemetery Chapel

05/11 – 05/12/12 Bonita Springs ~ Flowstival by The Gulf Coast Drum Foundation

05/17 – 05/20/12 Plant City – Southern Polyamory Gathering

05/25 – 05/27/12 Plant City – Women’s Retreat at All World Acres

05/25 – 05/12/12 Orlando ~ May-Hem Zombie Festival by Spookie Empire at the Wyndham Orlando Resort with Linda Hamilton of the Terminator series and John Astin of The Addams Family

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Each year, Miami-Dade County hosts the Biscayne Bay “Baynanza” Cleanup Day, taking place on Saturday, April 21, 2012 from 8 AM to Noon.

Biscayne Bay is a lagoon-like area that straddles alongside the coast of Miami-Dade. Visitors to the Magic City often mistake this area as simply the edge of Atlantic Ocean, but locals know the 35 mile by 8 mile bay protects a rare combination of aquamarine waters, emerald islands, and fish-bejeweled coral reefs, in addition to archaeological evidence dating back over 10,000 years.

Local Miami Pagans have committed to join the annual cleanup day. As this occurs right before Earth Day (April 22nd), cleaning up the bay will help you honor both Gaia and Yemayá all at once!

Registration by March 30th includes a free t-shirt. Contact Jerry at dwizards@gmail.com to join the Pagan crew keeping our city and her waters beautiful.

The Tequesta Drum Circle began in 2005 by Mark Foley, a Park Ranger at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. The original vision of the circle still stands: it is an intentional, inclusive Drum Circle marking the Seasonal shifts of the Planet.

The drum circle is held quarterly at the cross-quarters and celebrates the Winter and Summer Solstice, and Spring and Autumn Equinoxes.  It has been sponsored for the past 6 years by MoonPath Circle.  Mark is still very involved in the event.  It’s Mark who finds the people who host the ritual that takes place during the circle.  You’ve probably heard of this event, as they have quite a following on Facebook, and there’s manyvideos on YouTube of past events.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We spoke with Sophia Linus, who is a member of MoonPath Circle, about the event.  The Drum Circle is open to the entire drumming and spiritual community.  Each season, a different representative, a Clergy person, Priest, Priestess, Mystic, Pastor, Cleric, Bard, and etc offer a glimpse into a ‘way’ as an expression in honor of the Season and in honor of life-affirmation during ritual held at the Circle.  Most recently, an ordained Catholic Priest led main ritual, and it was quite exciting!

Roman Catholic Franciscan Priest Blesses Pagan Yuletide Circle, 2011

Members of MoonPath Circle are always on-hand assisting at the festival.  They, along with the drummers, fire tenders, and others donate their time to ensure that space is upheld for those who wish to honor the changing seasons.

As the Drum Circle is held in Florida, which has notoriously dry summers, the Tequesta Drum Circle has always worked with the park rangers to ensure that the evening Bon Fire is well-tended and that the site is always pristine after the event.  While they can no longer have fire spinners (but those with LED Poi are always welcome!), working with the state and local park rangers ensures that the event is safe and can continue each season.

The next circle is Tuesday, March 20th and runs from 7pm-midnight.  Park gates close at 10pm, so be sure to get there early!  Admission is $10 per person.  Those under 18 are allowed with an adult.  Bring what you will need to be comfortable, take home what you bring with you.  There is no alcohol or drugs at this event.

For more information about the Tequesta Drum Circle, we recommend you check out their site.  For information about other Florida Drum Circles, you can visit the Broward Drum Circle site.

Enjoy this music video to quicken your celebrations to the fair and mighty Goddess Brigid.

Also, instructions how to make your own Brigid doll are available here.

Dr. Reece is a Witch who has been practicing since the mid-1980s and a faculty member at American University. Dr. Reece says, “The primary intention of this study is to get information back out to the community so that we can figure out how best to build structures that support our practices and help us overcome barriers that we face as Pagans/Witches/Heathens.”

The goal is to have at least 2,000 Pagans/Witches/Heathens age 18 and older who reside in the United States take this survey to provide quality data for assessment. Dr. Reece notes, “The more respondents I receive from across the country, the better the information will be and the more useful the analysis that I will share.”

The survey is anonymous and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. Do your part! It can be accessed by clicking here.