Church guide

JANUARY LUNAR CANCELLED--Due to the current blanket of snow, plus the next wave of snowfall and single digit temperatures predicted for Friday, this Saturday's Lunar 1/19 has been cancelled. Please be safe out there and we will look forward to seeing everyone in February.

This Saturday and Sunday is our next work weekend and your next opportunity to earn a work voucher or 2 towards discounted festival registration. I'll be making ham 'n bean w/corn bread and a salad Saturday for lunch. Saturday night we'll be fire side (of course). There's plenty to do for any level of ability. Firewood will be gathered, split and stacked. Mowing, weed whipping and general clean up (I believe the Oak Scouts will be helping in this area too). We'll be working in the front yard of the retreat and some basic inside house cleaning. I'm sure there's more I'm not remembering lol Hope to see you this weekend. -Kerry Lynn

2018 Harvest Homecoming Schedule-

Invisible Aboriginals: The Wee Folk Of Oak Spirit Sanctuary By Grant McPeetie In this workshop, I will present some general information about the Fae as we have learned from on authors like W.Y. Evans-Wentz, John & Caitlyn Matthews, and the amazing artist Brian Froud. We will share some of our experiences with the Fae, on and off the land and invite the other participants to do the same. We will then discuss techniques for improving our relationship with the OSS Fae such as identifying Fae habitats on the land which must be protected from human intrusion. Requirements and restrictions - This class is not recommended for small children as working with the Fae is not without some risk, and the child must be old enough to understand and distinguish between fictional Disney fairies and real fairies. They are otherwise very welcome as children are most likely to perceive and interact with Fae. Grant has been walking the land for almost 30 years. He considers Oak Spirit Sanctuary the place he put down his magical roots. He is proud to have helped create one of the first Pagan festivals to he held on the land. Grant was trained to 2nd Degree in the Northwind Tradition, a mixture of Cherokee and Scottish Wicca. He spent 5 years training and initiating students of his own. The last of which received their training in San Diego, CA. where he met his husband and has been happily married ever sense.

Harvest Homecoming Basics of Wine Making workshop with Amy Cook- Ever wonder how to turn juice and yeast into a tasty beverage? Come sit with Amy and learn from her 20ish years of experimenting on the fermentation arts as well as some of the history of the art. She has learned as many ways to make wine as she has how to “not make” wine. Bring your questions and maybe a bottle of your favorite to enjoy and share on Friday. On Saturday, she’ll need help straining the fruit and preparing it for its transformation into the delicious treat we’ve all come to enjoy. Be ready to get your hands a little dirty as you learn the practical part of wine making.

CompassRose Traveling Temple is visiting OSS for the week. Here is the schedule of events they are offering.

We realize that Spring has finally sprung, but OSS just booked the most amazing guest for Harvest Homecoming that we wanted to SHOUT IT OUT now! If you have not made plans for mid September, here they are! If you have made plans, CANCEL them and come ans see Shibaten Spirits. -Kerry Lynn https://www.facebook.com/events/1769973399694200/1880168912007981/?notif_t=admin_plan_mall_activity¬if_id=1524635622487930

I am working with LB on outreach so I want to involve the members of our community to assist. If you know of any GROUP (SIPA, Pagan Picnic, Pride's), STORES, COVENS or other places we can send information to please post a name (on this post) and any info you have such as physical address (in the case of a store), email address, facebook name, instagram handle, twitter handle, snapchat handle etc. Second, I am looking for 1 or 2 (or more) people who are VERY social media savvy. Facebook I got pretty well, but I will admit I am an old fart sometimes and don't keep up with the new and upcoming social media places so if you are "insert a social media here" guru and love to post to support your OSS community please pm me Pat Monroe and we will come up with a kick ass media team.

Please take a few seconds to read this heartfelt letter from our secretary about the new septic system project. Our donation drive ends in two days, and the response has been generous and wonderful, but we aren't there yet. If you value OSS' existence, please donate to make our continued existence sustainable.

Early bird pricing has been extended an additional week for Ostara! Register between now and next Friday, March 15, for $15 off! https://www.oakspiritsanctuary.org/event/ostara-2/

A sustaining donor campaign? . . . with incentives, you say?!? Tell me more!! We’d be thrilled too! Thanks for asking!! As part of a variety of 2018 donor incentive packages, we will be offering (among other incentives) both coffee mugs and T-shirts. We want to make sure these thank you gifts are just what you want, so we’re seeking your input on designs. We’ve asked our own Isolde Finney to draft some sketches and we’d like to get your feedback. You can see the first round of draft sketches in the attached image and can give us your input using this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KCLXVR8 Keep in mind these are initial concepts, not the final versions and may go through further revisions. Excited yet??

From Lance Dodd- Nikki has made it through the second transplant and seems to be doing well. Thanks for all the Prayers, well wishes, donations, and sharing. There is a long expensive recovery ahead but we are blessed that shes made it this far Thank you ALL Bless you ALL and PLEASE KEEP SHARING And still we have not met what we need in donations. Try to help if you can, so when she does wake up, she doesn't have to be worried about how we are going to pay for everything. Please. If everyone who sees this would just scrape up $1 to $5 and then pass it on to their friends who would do the same, one big half of Nikki's problems would be solved. The only part we have control of, or I should say all of you reading this have control of. It's up to you. You can send donations or even just cards of encouragement to 402 Watts Ave Fayette, Mo 65248. If you prefer Paypal, my email for that is [email protected] and of course they don't take a fee like the gofundme does. We would also take donations to sell at the store to help make money that way. From Kerry Lynn- Whoa... Please Fire up your alters, add your healing energy to the green community circle. Visualize each of us in the circle adding our energy, as we have so many times. Visualize Nikolette Grace Colleen Dodd-Stoddard N in the circle with us and send her all the community healing and strength you can muster up! Thanks the Gods, every last one of them!

Check out this photojournalism feature on last weekend's Yule celebration!

Yule Celebration 2017

Goodnight Family

Join us Saturday during Samhain for another great workshop Samhain Guided Meditation w/Shyla Rain A journey through time and place with the promise of healing through the shedding of what no longer serves and a renewed understanding of what does. All paths welcome! Shyla Rain has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of Missouri St. Louis with numerous In-service hours while working in Medical Social Work. Being a Sensitive has aided her throughout her career and personal life guiding her decisions through the framework of her chosen path. Her spiritual perspective is Eclectic having studied many paths throughout her lifetime gleaning what works for here. Therefore, all paths are respected and appreciated. Healing heart, mind, and soul is her calling. All are welcome. Blessed Be! Samhain at the Sanctuary"action_history"%3A[%7B"surface"%3A"dashboard"%2C"mechanism"%3A"calendar_tab_event"%2C"extra_data"%3A"%7B%5C"dashboard_filter%5C"%3A%5C"upcoming%5C"%7D"%7D]%2C"ref"%3A2%2C"source"%3A2%7D

Join us for Samhain at the Sanctuary November 3rd - 5th. We have an amazing schedule planned! Preregistration is open until October 27th! See event link for more information! Tickets can be purchased at https://www.oakspiritsanctuary.org/event/samhain/

This is the amazing play Badger Johnson wrote for us. Unfortunately the cold and the batteries to the camera did not get along. Mummers’ Play, Winter 2015 OSS Dramatis Personae 1. FOOL - Johanna 2. SATURN - Mike 3. HERO - Badger 4. BOLD SLASHER- Darcy 5. OAK TREE - Don 6. WILLOW TREE - Madeline 7. BELFANA - Robyn [All enter in a line, move through the crowd clapping and stomping bells, forming a clockwise circle and expanding it to form the stage] ALL: Room! Room! Room! Give us room! Room! Room! Room! [a pause] FOOL: [steps forward] Some say I am but a fool A lord of crossroads, and misrule, Of hedgerows and of barleycorn, The greatest jape was ever born But as the days grow short and cold My dark midwinter court I’ll hold And so, good people, hear us rhyme I first will bring you Father Time! [steps back] SATURN: [steps forward] Here is Saturn, Old Father Time, To come before you with my rhyme In days when all was sand and mist The threads of life I spun and twist I measured well and wove them in And cut them and began again. A tale we’ll tell this winter cold Of wickedness and heroes bold. A bloody combat you shall see, And cures most marvelous indeed, To give you hope, in winter’s wind That summer lies around the bend. HERO: [steps forward] Dear Saturn sir, permit me say I am the hero of this play! This crown of gold is mine by right- I won it fairly in a fight! This year brought blessings to the land, On behalf of hope, I make my stand! I defeated Keystone with people power And Unist’ot’en Clan blocks tar sands this very hour Racism at Mizzou was challenged by a hunger strike And Football players helped win the fight. Cholera and Polio are almost gone, And in more states than ever, you can legally hit a bong! OSS women are having babies, And Pope Francis stopped Catholics from hating on Pagans, maybe. No matter who you are, you can marry your favorite lover And China ended the one child rule for mothers. Columbia’s approving more bike paths, And crowds at OSS lunars are back. A new wolf pack prowls Washington State; Plus, gas is super cheap as of late. Before you stands the greatest of all… A champion to sound the call! BOLD SLASHER: [steps forward] Go frack yourself, you silly boy! Your wooden sword is but a toy! The champion is me, right here! I’ve sown this year with sorrow and fear! Just like the state stole Camp Zoey’s land, they want to destroy Frog Bog with their heavy hand. I’ve sent more drones to bomb other nations, And Science magazine lauded Monsanto a top corporation, ISIL displaced millions of peaceful people, And exploded Palmyra’s Bel Temple, base to steeple. Terrorists are shooting up abortion clinics, And so-called Christians laugh and have picnics! Donald Trump has my back, And it’s still not really safe to be black. The drought in California just won’t stop, And the 1 %ers are still on top. I’ve crushed the social safety nets! Driven families from their homes They once believed they surely owned! The EPA dumped waste in the Animas River- Now come, and I shall split thy liver! HERO: Battle, battle, I will call! For one must stand and one must fall! BOLD SLASHER: Battle, battle, I will cry! For one of us must surely die! [they fight, three crosses of the sword and BS whacks the HERO, causing the HERO to stumble. HERO recovers, and they cross swords three more times, then HERO whacks BS causing BS to reel backwards] HERO: There, pretender, there’s the game! Stand and get ten more the same! Or lay upon the ground and yield, And cede to me the battlefield! BOLD SLASHER: Fool! Til now I did but play! And now upon the ground you’ll lay! [three more crosses of swords, and BS stabs HERO in the chest, HERO falls, BS salutes and runs off] SATURN: [throws himself across HEROs body] Horrible, terrible, hast thou done! You’ve gone and killed my only son! Thirteen children once I bore, Four died in protest of Russia ’s war. That left but nine, two died in ditches, Burned by mobs in Ghana as witches Four of my heirs made a home in Rolla, Where a meth lab explosion took them off to Valhalla, This left me then with naught but three, Two died for Kurdish democracy. And now here lies the last one left! Old Father Time is now bereft! OAK TREE: [steps forward with a club] Here am I, the mighty oak, I watch the hilltops for all good folk, And when their time on earth is done, I fly their souls thrice round the sun. WILLOW TREE: [steps forward to opposite side with either a bunch of grapes or a sheaf of withies] The valley willow tree am I, Beside the creek I weep and sigh. I’ll bear this hero, who hath died, To lay beneath the riverside. SATURN: Good people, is there anyone, Who might come forth to heal my son? [BELFANA, comes forward riding piggy-back on the HORSE] BELFANA: Here am I, a sexy witch! Before Saint Nick ruled Yuletide’s niche, To me, Belfana, kids declared their virtue, Asking for favors, cures and what have you, Indeed the winter holiday of giving Was said to be mine by all those living in Italy. In other places, Mushroom shamans dropped presents through yurt window spaces, So sure, I’ll bring your hero back, If all agree this year not to slack, Wassail to me, and re-dedicate yourselves, To truth and beauty, my pretty elves! SATURN: Good Belfana, that’s no problem at all, The community assembled here is in thrawl, To the Goddess good, who has forever Compelled us to love each other To make the world a better place while enjoying ourselves and not being too chaste. So favor Saturn’s son, the hope of all And with your magick caste out death’s pall [BELFANA bends down, kisses hero on the heart. Dramatically, HERO opens eyes, smiles and lets out a sigh] HERO: A-sleeping I have lately been, And now awake, I rise again! The dreams I dreamt in that cold night, Were stranger than any mortal sight, And yet alive I stand today, Now all must dance, and earn our pay! [music and dancing] FOOL: Our play is done and we must part, We wish to you a lighter heart, With deeds we build the world anew, For good or ill, tis up to you, And if we have offended here… ALL: We hope you’ll laugh more come next year! [All return to the clapping rhythm of the original entry, moving again into a circle and forming a line which leaves out the door]