Circle Talk · Circle Podcasts

Pagan Spirit Gathering 2025

January 22, 2025·1 hr 2 min·5 clips

Pagan Spirit Gathering is moving north to a Wisconsin campground so dense with trees you can't see the ground on Google Earth.

1. Circle Talk host Debra Rose interviews Reverend Messina Dugan, manager of the Pagan Spirit Gathering, to announce the festival's move to River Forest Campground in White Lake, Wisconsin for its 45th year. 2. Reverend Messina Dugan uses they/them pronouns, has attended PSG since 2003, was ordained through Circle Sanctuary's Minister Training Program in 2019 at PSG, and has managed the event in partnership with Reverend Sharon Moonfeather Stewart. 3. The episode's core purpose is to orient both first-time and returning attendees to the new site, its logistics, and the 2025 program before registration closes. 4. Community feedback gathered through post-festival surveys over several years consistently requested a move north from Missouri, where high temperatures and limited shade made the event physically demanding. 5. Rev. Messina and Rev. Moonfeather conducted a whirlwind weekend covering four states — Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin — visiting four or five campground candidates before River Forest won on shade, flat terrain on the hilltop, and the land-stewardship ethic of owners Raphael and Amy. 6. The site's tree cover is so dense it is invisible from Google Earth; Rev. Messina walked the full length at 88 degrees Fahrenheit without sweating. 7. Cabins with bunk beds and queen beds were offered for the first time in several years and sold out within the first hour of registration opening; waiting lists exist for cabins and RV electric hookups. 8. The campground sits at the top of a hill with a shuttle running continuously to help attendees and vendors navigate the elevation; most of the camp above the hill is flat. 9. River Forest's camp store sells scooped Cedar Crest ice cream, bread, peanut butter, Good Humor ice cream bars, site merchandise, and alcohol under a liquor license — amenities not available at recent previous sites. 10. A dump station and water fill-up are available on site at no additional charge for campers with RVs. 11. The festival layout will follow PSG's familiar town structure: Merchant Row as main street, the info center and raffle tent nearby, med services adjacent, the stage at one end, and workshop zones at the other. 12. Noon concerts are being considered for 2025 for the first time since COVID, made feasible by the shaded site; they were eliminated at Missouri because both stages were in direct sun. 13. Featured presenters include Druid author Christopher Hughes and Keri Lee, partner of Dove the Bard; all three are Druids, aligning with the 2025 theme of Sacred Forest. 14. Musicians include Arthur Hines, Primal Rhythm — highlighted in 2024 feedback for outstanding drumming — Spiral Rhythm, Black Willow Starling, and Dove the Bard. 15. Rev. Messina describes PSG's 'bubble' as the result of deliberate layered ritual work: threshold and boundary magic on the first day of setup, gate team blessings on arrival, and guardian ward-setting during opening ritual — a process most attendees have never heard described. 16. Opening ritual on Sunday night involves all attendees walking through the village together by lantern light, beginning as strangers and emerging as community; Rev. Messina describes having seen 'almost like heat waves in the air' during setup at a previous site. 17. First-time solo attendees are addressed directly: PSG has a 'buddy bench' near the info tent where anyone who wants to meet people can sit and wait for someone to join them, added several years ago. 18. The episode has a friendly, logistically detailed interview format; both Debra and Messina are clearly longtime attendees who speak with institutional familiarity and occasional humor about the practical realities of festival planning. 19. People planning to attend PSG 2025, curious about pagan festival culture, or interested in large-scale community ritual and event organization will find the episode directly useful. 20. Listeners with no interest in pagan spirituality, nature religion, or festival community dynamics are unlikely to find the practical logistics discussion relevant.

As heard by us

A grounded look at how pagan gatherings turn strangers into community.

Circle Talk treats Pagan Spirit Gathering 2025 as a look at how community is built in practice. The episode keeps its focus on the small, useful details: showing up, taking workshops, and leaving room for people who arrive on their own.

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Want a gentle guide to showing up alone and still finding your people?

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