Podcasts about suntree

https://theapsocietyorg.wordpress.com/news-and-events/suntree-retreat-2024/   Episode from 2022 Suntree: https://thewonderpodcast.podbean.com/e/live-from-suntree-retreat/   ----more----     Mark: Welcome back to The Wonder, Science Based Paganism. I'm your host, Mark, Yucca: And I'm Yucca. Mark: and today we have a really exciting group of people to talk about a really exciting upcoming event, which is the Sun Tree Retreat, which is the second of these retreats that we've held in person for atheopagans from all over the world who can come. Held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and it's going to be over Labor Day weekend this summer. So, I'd like to introduce our two panelists here, who were at the last one Rana and Michael. Michael: Hello. Yucca: Rana, we Mark: I can't hear you at all. Rana: Oh, thank you for having us. Yucca: Welcome. And I think both of you've been on the podcast before, right? So, welcome back. Michael: Oh, thanks. Can Yucca: Yeah. Michael: put that Yucca: So let's, let's start with the, some of the details because that's coming up really soon, right? That's Mark: It is, Yucca: two months, which is not very long. Mark: nope, not very long, especially if you have to get plane tickets and that kind of thing, so, Really encourage folks that want to go to get registered and get organized around it, because it's going to be a really good time. So, details. The event is August 30th, which is a Friday starting in the afternoon through noon ish or one o'clock or so 2nd. Registration includes nine meals. As a part of your, your registration fee you also need to register for lodging, which is very affordable and you can find all the information about it by going to the Athe O Pagan Society website, which is the ap society.org, THE ap society.org, Yucca: And the lodging has several diff oh, Michael: notes as well for this Yucca: absolutely, yeah, we'll put that in the show notes so that people can just go ahead and click on it. I was gonna say the lodging has several different options including tent camping, and yurt and Mark: guest house, you're. Yucca: I think it's dry camping, but you could, if you have an RV and you're in the area, you can do an RV too, is that correct? Mark: Yes, there are no hookups, but but there is parking for RVs. We had a couple of people, at least one couple came last time, actually in a school bus, Yucca: was really cool. Mark: was converted. It was really cool. Yucca: Yeah, Mark: So, Michael and Rana we wanted to talk some about why this event was so cool last time and what we're looking forward to going into this next one at the end of this summer. So why don't we start with kind of golden moments. Michael, you want to go ahead? Michael: I wanted to just say beforehand, you mentioned the meals, and one of the high points of it was the options available. Like, every dietary requirement was accommodated, I think. Mark: Yeah, Michael: The catering team there are fantastic, and I think people shouldn't feel concerned about food at all because the options were great the food was really high quality I think everybody felt really good about the food, so that was an important, that was a real high point so just wanted to make sure we got that mentioned. And, Mark: Yeah, great. Thank you. And, and eating together was really a high point for me. Just sitting down for meals, you know, they had these round tables that I think seated eight or ten or something like that, and different combinations of people would sit together for different meals. And so we got to know one another better in those mealtimes. So that was a high point for me. Somebody want to go with another cool thing that they remember from Suntree in 2022? Yucca: well, I remember Robin led these I'm not sure what you would really call it,  Rana: yeah, the meal acknowledgement. We have talked about them in the group, but it was really different being able to experience it together. And it was things like bringing to mind the history of our food or thinking about the systems that brought it to us today or the hands that it passed through. And we've had some discussion in Mihal's full moon. We were doing like a full moon lunch thing for a little while as well where we kind of continued that conversation and, and thinking about that, which is something that I find really enriching and really enjoy. Also want to strongly second the dietary accommodations that they had. I really, really appreciate it because I have a little bit of an odd diet and I felt. Really good and definitely did not lack for good options for food. Mark: Mihal, you want to go? Michael: yeah, what I found really interesting about the, The whole experience was how quickly we created a community in space particularly when we did our Fire Circle get togethers. And the kind of spontaneous sharing that occurred at those events was really amazing. People really just suddenly kind of created this family. in situ and it was it was great to be part of that. Just sometimes if you go to other kind of retreats it can take a while to kind of break down those those barriers we put up. Just as just as being human but it seemed within a just a few hours we'd kind of already started to create a special Sun Tree community and I thought that was fantastic. Mark: Yeah, I really agree with that. I mean, I've been to a whole lot of various kinds of pagan gatherings and retreats of various sorts. And it seemed as though we just kind of got at this visceral level that we were among, you know, people that were of like mind and similar values. And so that we were safe. Right? We were all, we were all going to play nice with one another, and so we could talk about really deep stuff in our, in our lives, and in our, our experience. And I found that really moving throughout the whole long weekend. It was, it was, it came up over and over again. Yucca: I was also really struck just by the immediate level of respect and consent that was just part of the, Everybody had going in. So I had my five year old with me and in a lot of situations in our culture, people you know, will go up and touch five year old's heads and give them hugs and, you know, all of those sorts of things. And I remember it just being great because people automatically were so great with her about asking for her permission. Like, do you want a hug? And would you like to shake hands? And that was just the culture of it. And it was just so refreshing and wonderful to just be in that space, just from the get go. Like Mark: and I mean, we had, we had laid out guidelines around consent and around conduct because, you know, we wanted to be very clear about, you know, what the expectations are, but it seemed like people read them and were like, yeah, that's civilized behavior. That's how I'm going to be. And the subject Honestly, never came up. There was never a situation where somebody felt like they had been inappropriately touched or or somehow invaded in that kind of way. And I thought that was, that was really pretty amazing. Michael: I just wanted to talk about the actual place as well. The Retreat Center is Really, really phenomenal. There's this beautiful forest. You're kind of just on the edge of Colorado Springs, so it's not too far from any stores or anything that you might need. But once you get in there, you suddenly feel like The outside world has disappeared just in this beautiful forest really a fantastic place just to go for walks just to go into the forest by yourself if you want to go for I think one of the big highlights was that we had a lunar eclipse while we were, while we were there, and being able to all, for the whole, all of us to go out there onto this big lawn and just stare up at the, at the moon together, and people howling at the moon, it was It was just a really fantastic experience as well especially just having that, we, we had the the Ponderosa Lodge, which is this big log cabin lodge that we can use for a lot of our activities, for rituals, and for our workshops. And that's a real, that's, that's a really nice space as well, there are different rooms, so you can kind of break off and do different things with people, or you can kind of come to the main room and have a bigger discussion. We had dance parties there, we had the Carnival of Change, which was a chance to kind of take on a different persona, like dress up. be a different version of yourself for the evening. So I think the whole, the whole retreat center just kind of facilitates that. There's a, there's a labyrinth there as well, which we didn't really incorporate too much into any rituals the last time around, but I think we're going to try and bring that in more this time around. Mark: Yeah, it's a beautiful spot. Rano? Rana: Yeah, the, the shared experience of the lunar eclipse was pretty special and it, it just so perfectly aligned with what we were doing. It was the same night as the Carnival of Change and it just felt like great, like the weather cooperated and we got to see this cool celestial event. It wasn't even at a super late time, like it was, it felt like a Yucca: like eight or nine. Yeah, Rana: Yeah, yeah, it felt like started our evening, kind of, or, you know, it didn't, it wasn't, you know, too far on late night or anything. The Carnival of Change itself was really fun, just to be able to play dress up together and listen to some music and, and just have fun. And I also like, like Michael said being able to split off into other little rooms and areas. It And I think for me, something that I really appreciated was the ability to have these just kind of unplanned moments where so much of our online interactions are very scheduled and it, you just show up at a certain time and there's a group of people and that's kind of mostly how it's gone. But, like, I just remember some folks were up later one night just all chatting and hanging out. And I love that feeling of if you're up late and feeling a little bit chatty or sociable, you can just kind of see who's up and just take a seat and hang out for a bit. And that's something that otherwise has felt like not really something we have access to. So it was particularly nice just to be able to connect in a more organic way, depending on how you're feeling. Mark: hmm. Yeah. Nihal? Michael: Yeah I think we, there was a lot of, there's been some learnings from that event as well, and I think there, we were really concerned about accessibility this time around, because there was a lot of movement between different areas. And so this time around we are definitely going to be making it more accessible as well. There's going to be designated drivers, so we want to make sure that everybody feels comfortable and everybody's able to take part in all the different events that we're having. So, I, I know that there's going to be a lot of more accessibility this time around, especially just in terms of shuttling people around the property. Yucca: Because there were a few hills and we were moving from the bottom of the hill back up to the dining room and then back down. Michael: Yes, yes, yeah, but I think we, Mark: and we were at 7, 000 feet. Michael: that was another, yeah  Mark: yeah one of the things that we learned from the Sun Tree Retreat in 2022 is that we had programmed a lot of the time, but some of the most memorable and wonderful moments were the unscripted times. The, the, The break periods when we could just gather together and socialize, or plan what we wanted to do for a rite of passage during the rite of passage period that we had later on, which was one of the most moving things to me. That was really an experience. So this time we've programmed in more free time. There's still plenty of workshops and, and rituals and experiences to have, but we've made it a little bit looser so that people have opportunities just to hang out and experience the place and one another. Michael: yeah, yeah, I just wanted to I might talk about the rites of passage a bit more because that was quite a unique experience. I guess we didn't really know how that was going to go because it's kind of like, it's a make your own ritual event, basically. You, you just DIY it with some help from some friends. So I think people were, they had various things that they wanted to celebrate or commemorate and or mark the end of a period in their life, or the start of a period in their life. And we all came together and celebrated those those events together. And I think what was really amazing was just the creativity that people brought to their rituals. Really very moving and even though they were very personal, I felt that We all kind of, as a community, came together and it became something for all of us. Mark: Yeah. I felt so included in all of those rituals. I felt like my being there mattered. And even if just as a witness and that. You know, that there was room for everyone to have the kind of experience that they wanted to have. And it, and we, we ended the rites of passage with a wedding, which was sweet. It's kind of, you know, the classic act four of the movie, right? And that was really lovely. So, I was, I was super happy with that, and we're doing that rites of passage process again this summer. Michael: Maybe we could talk about some of the workshops that took, that people liked. Mark: Oh, yeah. Michael: I really, I think one of the highlights was the Cosmala workshop, bead workshop, which is basically making a bead necklace that, with each bead representing an important part of, in the life of the universe, or in your own personal life, or just various different events that you want to commemorate. That's, that's kind of right, isn't it? Or was there any Mark: John Cleland Host, who is our friend and a real innovator in the whole realm of naturalistic paganism, one of the earliest people to write about it in its new resurgence. He has this amazing more than a hundred bead string. Of, that all, it starts with the Big Bang and it works all the way until, at least until the Sun Tree Retreat, because he had special beads made for the Sun Tree Retreat that he distributed to people so they could put them on their own cosmola. That was very, very cool. And some of them are signed by people like Starhawk and Jane Goodall and just really a fascinating, wonderful ritual tool and evocative piece of art. Yucca: so there were a lot of different styles of workshops too. There was a, like a history one and there was a John did another one which was like the Wheel of the Year, which he had some really cool handouts for too for that. Mark: We live the year for families, which I thought was really wonderful. You know, a lot of people in our community have families that they're working to build traditions with together, and so, and John has really, you know, pioneered some of that, you know, working with his, with his wife and his sons. And just had a lot of great ideas about different things he could do at different times of the year and was, you know, freely sharing all that stuff. It was great. Rana: There was also a group guided meditation that we did outside overlooking Pikes Peak on their big, expansive, beautiful lawn with all the ponderosa pines, which I'd never, I don't think I'd ever seen them before. I'd never been to Colorado before. And that was really lovely just to kind of take a moment to be there and be present. And there was also a body painting. Which, I appreciated the, like, especially interactive stuff because it's something we're normally restricted about online. And I really loved Mihal's presentation about virtual meals because I think food is just such an integral way to connect with other people and you can infuse it with all this symbolism. And it gave me a lot of ideas. I need to revisit my notes on that and thinking forward to the next one a little bit too, just that ability to share food and those meal acknowledgements really adds to that feeling of making meaning with other people and making community. Michael: Yeah, we had a food altar as well, which was kind of cool. An abundance of food. People brought stuff to share. And I thought that was fantastic as well. Just, uh, one, one person brought some really good kimbap, which I love. So that, if you don't know what that is, it's Korean sushi, basically. And it was just really good. Mark: Yeah, there, there was there was just a vibe of generosity and mutual support. Mutual affirmation. You know, I came away from it feeling like, you know, I've got these amazing, super cool people in my world, and they feel the same about me, and that's just good for my life, generally. Even if I'm not going to see them for a couple of years, except online, just knowing that we shared this experience together just helps me to feel affirmed in who I am and what I do. And I, I, I think I think that was the general vibe that people got out of the event. Yucca: That certainly was, I felt that strongly as well. I was, you know, riding that for several weeks after coming home. Michael: Definitely an afterglow of, kind of like, hard to come down from the high of the event as well. It took a while because it was so special. Mark: yeah, absolutely. So we want to talk a little bit about some of the offerings we're going to have this time. Some of them are repeats from last time, but some of them are new. Let me see if I can pick one. Oh, go ahead. Michael: I was just going to say, maybe everybody's had a chance to look at the program and if you, if there's any particular highlights you want to, that you'd like to talk about that maybe you're looking forward to. Mark: There's so many things. Um,  Michael: Well, should we talk, let's talk about the theme first. Mark: sure, of course. That's a great Michael: we didn't, we didn't have a theme last time, but we do have a theme this, this time. Mark: Which is Solarpunk, a chosen family reunion. The idea being that Solarpunk being a very kind of optimistic movement for the betterment of the world, the betterment of our relationship with nature rather than kind of the doom and gloom that we, that we see everywhere around us now, Solarpunk is a, It's a genre of of writing and of art that is optimistic and looks to the future as, yes, filled with challenges, but also filled with opportunities for us to grow and change and do better. And the chosen family reunion part is I mean, I certainly felt and I think that a lot of us felt at the last Sun Tree Retreat that these, these people were my chosen family. It was, it felt like, oh, wow, all my cousins and uncles and, and nephews and nieces have all shown up and now we're having this great sort of family hoopla together. It was, it was great that way. Yucca: And one of the workshops is going to be on solar punk and atheopaganism more specifically, right? That's Mark: yeah. Michael: Yeah, Hanna is going to be leading that one. Mark: Mm hmm. I'm looking forward to that one as well. And of course we'll have some some elements that will be around, you know, learning how to organize rituals or to you know, to design them. Or you know, kind of learning the observational skills about getting more in touch with the processes of nature around you. Mm hmm. That was something about the, the lunar eclipse last time that it really dovetailed with something that, that Yucca and I talk about on here all the time, which is just about, you know, paying attention, about being present and experiencing the moment and observing what's happening in nature, and That was such a dramatic event. It really, really riveted our attention for about an hour or so. Michael: We're bringing back the Cosmala again, because that was so popular, and I think, I'm sure that new people are going to want to try their hand at making Cosmolas. Mark: I've never made one. I, I'm, it's an oversight. I have to do it now. Going to do a reader's theater. I'm organizing that of a reworking of the myth of Hades and Persephone and Demeter in Greek mythology. Because, even though that's a very popular myth in pagan, kind of modern pagan circles and a lot of different groups have done reenactments of the Eleusinian mysteries that enact that story, it's a pretty terrible story, really. I mean, Hades, Hades captures the innocent daughter Kore, drags her away and makes her his wife. That's terrible. Not so cool in modern, Yucca: way of putting it, Mark: yes, that is a very polite way of putting it, yeah. So, so I rewrote it. I rewrote it to have a different kind of ending and a different set of teachings than the original story did. And we're going to do a reader's theater where people who come to the workshop can pick up a script and take a part and we'll all read it together. And and it'll be fun and hopefully people will enjoy it. So that's another thing we're going to do. Michael: Yeah, we've occasionally done death cafes online which are kind of opportunities to talk about death and, you know, I think our movement's kind of a death positive movement, and we want to kind of honor that, and so something I'm going to be leading is an Irish wake kind of experience, and, you know, at an Irish wake, it's not just mourning the dead, it's kind of celebrating life. And kind of celebrating chaos and causing mayhem. So we're gonna have we're gonna have a bit of an Irish wake experience and I'm, people are gonna be invited to bury the things they want to bury, or remember the things they want to remember. And then we will also cause some mischief as well. Mark: Sounds great. I'm up for all of that. Yucca: And on Saturday, at lunchtime, we're planning to do the same thing that we did last time. to do a live podcast episode, and that may be an opportunity for folks who can't attend in person to zoom in and connect. Yes, Mark: Yes, cross, cross your fingers for the internet connection at the Retreat Center. Yucca: that's why we say May, we're going to try really hard, technology willing, right, Rana? Rana: So, the last time we had Sun Tree, we hadn't yet started our adult salon. Which we recently rebranded as Adult Forum, and I'm really excited to be able to have that in person for the very first time. I've really valued it as a space to connect and share resources and share a little bit about our experiences and our lives. And for folks that might not be as familiar with what it is, it is a peer support space to discuss adult topics openly, and it is, we consider it kind of semi structured. We usually start with a topic just as a starting point of conversation, and then we let things naturally flow depending on what the participants want to talk about, what's on their minds, can go through multiple topics in one session. It is a confidential and non judgmental setting where we're really there to learn from each other's experiences, share our knowledge, especially if you have a range of ages. There's folks that have just lived different lives or experiences that may have things to share feel less alone. In a lot of things that we encounter in life I know. There's a real epidemic of loneliness, especially in America, and it's something I always have felt really deeply about, but don't really know what to do about it, so I appreciate being able to be a part of this space and have this space together in order to continue that kind of connection and We're going to have a way for people to anonymously submit topics or questions while we're at the event so that the people that are there attending are really crafting what it is that we want to talk about and the topics have really ranged in the past and included things like money, relationship styles, aging, death, altered states, sexuality, and more and Yeah, I've just been really looking forward to it. It is an 18 plus event, and I just, I can't wait to have that in, in person. I think it'll be a great version of it, just because we've always had it remote. Mark: Yeah. Michael? Michael: I know there's one of the FAQs we get around this is that you know, is it going to be recorded? Am I going to be able to participate online? And unfortunately, no, it's just for some of the reasons we discussed. First of all, technology, it's not always reliable, so we can't really do live stuff. I think it's possible that some of the workshops will be recorded. That depends on the presenter. And, but we don't want to, we want to also, honor people's confidentiality as well. So it's possible that we can record some of them, but maybe some of them won't be recorded. But that's why we also offer our totally online conference every other year as well. So if you can't make it in person to SunTree, we will be doing our web weaving online conference next year. So that is just a way of bridging that gap where if you can't make it in person, there is still an online space for you to take part in. Mark: Right. Right. And I, and I should point out the adult forum will not be recorded. It's, it's a totally confidential, just live action space for people to, to have discussions about sensitive stuff. So you needn't worry that you're going to find yourself on the internet talking about personal things. Yucca: Right, and for any of the presenters who do choose to have their, their presentation recorded, it would just be of them, not of the audience. So there'll be the private, privacy for the folks in the audience. Mark: Yeah, because, I mean, there are, in our community, there are people who are You know, in various stages of outness in relation to their non theist atheopaganism, right? Some are out as atheists, but not necessarily the pagan part. Some are completely solitary in, in their You know, practice of their path, and we want to be respectful of all of that. So, it's really important to us that people be able to participate without endangering something that, that is important to them. Mijo? Michael: Something that's New this time around, as well, is that we will be kind of having formal vendors. I will be sharing a sign up sheet for people in the coming days, where you, if you want to, if you've got anything you want to sell, or products or services we will have a space for you to do that. So, if you're, it could be anything, you could be selling, selling your own craft, or, I guess, doing Readings or things like this. We'll just sign up and we'll we'll reach out to you if we need, if we have any further questions about the kind of stuff you're going to be sharing with us. Mark: We should say, though, that, that the vending is going to be during a particular window of time at the event, because what we don't want is for a vendor to be there stuck behind a counter, and for the entire event and unable to participate in the various activities, right? Because they're part of the community and we want them in with us doing all the stuff. So we're going to have a marketplace slot in the program, and that's when you can do your vending and, you know, promote your services and all that kind of stuff. So what else should we say about this? I mean, we know because we've been there, it's really cool. Hope that our listeners Yucca: to just put that out there for that part of the world. It's a nice warm time of year. Last time Michael: Will the swimming pool, Yucca: May, which was a little bit iffy, we got really lucky. last Mark: we did. Yucca: I think it started snowing right after we left, Mark: Yeah, something like three days afterwards it started snowing at the retreat center, but that's not going to happen this time, because we're on Labor Day weekend and it should be pretty temperate and nice. Michael: I think there's a swimming pool there as well. Mark: Oh, that's right, it was closed when we were there before, but there is a swimming pool there. Yes, Michael: We should double check if we have access to that, but I think we will, but we should probably double check that. Mark: yes, that's true. Ha ha ha! Michael: I guess you should definitely get booked in quickly if you are intending to come. Because we're, it's coming up fast. I can't believe it's only two months away, so you really need to start thinking about getting your, making your way there and booking your tickets. Mark: Yeah, yeah it's very affordable especially when you consider that it includes nine meals and the lodging for the, the Yurt guest houses is only 75 for the entire event. So it's you know, we, we, we set price points low because we wanted people to be able to access it and we know that there are travel expenses associated. We if you, if you want to come, but there are, you know, financial issues, we have limited scholarship support, so please contact us. You can use the the Wonder Podcast queues at gmail. com, podcast email address to contact us, and we'll get back to you about that. But we'd really encourage our listeners, you know, if you like what you've been hearing on this podcast for the last five years now come and, come and meet us. Come and, and, you know, meet the community and, and check us out. Michael: It was just, I don't know if I expressed how Amazing it was, but it was just such a unique, a singular event and kind of a highlight of my life, I'd really say. It was just spectacular, and I don't know if I, I don't know if I captured that before, but I just thought it was just an amazing thing to be part of. And I think it's going to be just as amazing this time around. Mark: Me too. Yeah. I, I, I can't wait to see you all. And and other folks that, you know, I met two years ago. I'm just, I'm so looking forward to it rana, I Rana: so for me, it, it really felt like coming full circle, like I'd connected with you all, and we spent so much time together during the pandemic. so much. My personal life was also going through some transition and Suntree was actually pretty emotional for me. It was good But I don't know it's a little hard to explain But it just felt like I did a lot of emotional processing while I was there But I very much felt like I was in community I was able to finally meet these people that I had connected with and So now it just feels like I have something to look forward to You going forward knowing that we're gonna do this with some regularity. And for myself as well, it also gave me some more confidence traveling alone because I'm used to traveling with a partner if I go somewhere, especially airplane travel. And so it helped me feel a little bit more adventurous and confident feeling like I went to a state I've never been to before and met up with some people and everything went great. Like, no, no complaints. Mark: really felt that same sense of just really being able to be myself. And I was surprised by that because as one of the organizers last time, I thought I was kind of going to have to be on and sort of be a host. You know, for the whole weekend. And that really wasn't the case at all. I, I, I just felt like, you know, I was, I was welcomed there, warts and all, and there were plenty of other people to help. And it was great. It was just really a good, good time. Well, listen, thank you. Oh, Michael: Hopefully we can do the, the firewalking this time, because last time we couldn't do it because there was a burn ban, but there is potential for doing a firework walk. So people are into that, that might be available. So we'll see what happens. Yucca: Keep our fingers crossed. Mark: that would be exciting. I've never done that, and I'd like to try it. I don't know why I'd like to try it. I, but I would. Michael: That's the ultimate ritual, I guess. And for anybody who's kind of, their ears are pricking up when they hear that the person leading that has got decades of experience. Mark: Yeah. And, you know, very, very careful rules around, you know, everybody having to be absolutely sober, you know, being, you know, a lot of focus, doing this in a really sacred kind of container, so that's that's That's all to the good. Let me see. So, we're gonna put the link to the the event in the show notes. You can go, you can read the program, you can read about the event, you can see a picture of the Ponderosa Lodge and Atheopagan Society website, there's also a gallery of photos that were taken at the last Suntree retreat. So you can take a look at that.  Michael: Could you add in the show notes as well? Could you add the episode we actually recorded? Yucca: Oh yeah, let's link to that because we, yeah, that would be nice to go back and listen to actually. And what was it like in the moment? So that'll be in the show notes too. Mark: yeah, yeah, I just, I just remember we're sitting there and we're talking and people would cruise up to the table glowing and sit down in front of the microphone for a little while and talk about the experience they were having and then toddle off and somebody else would come by. It was just, it was lovely. So listen, folks Sun Tree Retreat, you don't want to miss it. Please come join us, visit with us. We, we would so love to see you. And we will be back next week with another episode of The Wonders of Science Based Paganism. Thank you, Rana and Michael. Thank you for being here. Michael: Thank you.   

Remember, we welcome comments, questions, and suggested topics at thewonderpodcastQs@gmail.com. S4E25 TRANSCRIPT: ----more----   Mark: Welcome back to The Wonder, Science Based Paganism. I'm your host, Mark, Yucca: and I'm Yucca. Mark: and today we are celebrating Atheopagan Day, which is the anniversary of when our community first started.  Yucca: Online community. Mark: yes the the founding of our Facebook group, which is where most of our engages online was on August 5th, 2012. So as we're recording this, it's the 11th anniversary of the founding of that community. And so we're going to talk a little bit about the history and how things have changed, what we're doing now and what we're looking towards in the future. Yucca: that's right, and it's been a lot, Mark: Yeah, it really has. It's it's, it's been, and it's been such a beautiful ride. I mean, obviously there have been setbacks and frustrations and all the rest of that, but. Mostly, it's just been so heartening to see and feel this community come together in all the wonderful ways that it is. Yucca: Yeah, and it's 11 years is really hard to believe. That's, that's a lot. So, Mark: I was saying before we started recording, in neopagan years, that's even more. It's like dog years or Yucca: yeah, Mark: Because the culture evolves really quickly you know, in, in the time that I've been involved in, in Neopagan Circles which started in 1987, we've had at least three distinct phases Thank you. of development within the community in terms of changes in perspective and paradigm just really transformational things that have happened from the sort of loosey goosey still, you know, not very clueful about things like consent late 60s all the way up to today. Yucca: Right  Mark: pretty, pretty cool. 11 years, a lot can change. Yucca: yeah. And I think a lot, really, in the last four years, five years, at least, that I've been witnessing it seems like there's been such a shift in a lot of, not just within kind of our smaller subset of the pagan community, but the larger pagan community, and also a little bit of the, the general cultural attitude towards something like paganism. There's definitely been a big shift since, you know, since I was a kid, you know, thinking back on, it's just, it's a normal, in a lot of ways, it's a very normal thing now. I know there's a lot, definitely areas of the country that that's not the case, but on kind of a big scale, it's, it really has the, Level of acceptance has grown. Mark: Yeah, and I think there are, I mean, there are certainly entities and figures that that are not us, that we, that contributed heavily to that. I mean, like the Lady Liberty League, for example, which pressed The U. S. military to recognize Wicca as one of the symbols you could put on a gravestone in a military cemetery. Getting them to recognize any pagan religion was really like pulling teeth, and they pushed on it for about 20 years before they finally got it. Yucca: Yeah, right, Mark: And more representation in mainstream media, all that kind of stuff has really helped. Yucca: yeah. So I think it's fascinating to see, or to really reflect on, the changes within our community and how those are influenced from outside sources and, you know, the influence that we've had as well and all of that is, I mean, somebody should do their somebody should do their dissertation on that. I think that would make a fascinating one. Mark: yeah, me too, me too. Yeah, there's just, there's so much to say about it, but why don't we go back to the beginning, Yucca: Right. Mark: And start there, and just kind of, you know, work our way forward. So, atheopaganism started out as an idea that I had for myself. Yucca: Yeah. Mark: I had had, I'd been involved with the local pagan community for a very long time, had some really off putting experiences in the late 90s, early 2000s that reinforced to me how much capital B belief had become important Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: in the pagan culture, and which had not been true when I first joined. Yucca: hmm. Mark: And as an atheist pagan, I was feeling really oppressed by this and then it got to the point where I was offended by it because there were a couple of circumstances that I saw where the will of the gods was used as an excuse for some really horrible behavior. Yucca: Right. Mark: And I left. Yucca: Mm Mark: But within six months, I mean, I was depressed. I, I missed my rituals, and I missed my altar, and I missed my friends, and, you know, I missed celebrating the seasons, all that kind of stuff. So I started thinking, well, what is a religion really, and what do they do for us, and how can I get that stuff without having to subscribe to a bunch of supernaturalism? Yucca: hmm. Mark: And I started working on an essay, and this was in 2005. And the essay was done in 2009, and that was what eventually became my book that came out in 2019, Yucca: Mm Mark: about, first of all, about kind of my journey through this and the science You know, the neuroscience and the confirmation bias, the various fallacies, apophenia, and, you know, all those phenomena that tend to make us fooled by our senses. Yucca: hmm. Mark: And then the second part of the book was laying out, okay, well, taking as a given that the value that, for me, is going to be about revering the Earth. How can I practice a pagan practice around the wheel of the year that doesn't involve anything supernatural or culturally appropriated? Yucca: hmm. Mm hmm. Mm Mark: And so I wrote all that up, and it was a 40 page essay, and and I was ready to happily go trotting forward, you know, using my little model for myself. Yucca: hmm. Mark: But I had conversations with friends, Yucca: So the essay had been just more of a way of you to, to clarify your thoughts, right? And work through those ideas and you just, just the writing of it was how you worked through these ideas. Mark: That's right. I mean, I'm a writer and that is the way that it's like having an internal narrative, you know, as I explored these ideas on paper or in bits Yucca: as you explored in Mark: in, in, in writing new ideas would occur to me, new connections would occur to me. And so that's just the modality that I use in, in kind of framing my, my thinking about things. Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: And so, as I said, I was ready to go trotting forward with my, my little practice that was for me, but when I had conversations, and so I re engaged the local pagan community. Understanding that I was going to be myself, and not to be rude about it, you know, if I go to somebody else's ritual and they're invoking gods, I'm not going to say anything about it. Yucca: Sure. Yeah. Mark: But the rituals that I conduct, that I invite people to, were going to be, you know, godless, non supernaturalist kinds of rituals. Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: And in the course of these conversations, I started having people say, well, don't tell anybody, but actually, that's really kind of what I believe, too. Yucca: Yeah, Mark: and you really ought to put this essay up on the internet and, you know, have, get some comments on it, have, get some discussion started around it. And in 2009, I did that. I put it up on Scribd.  Yucca: Remember that. Mark: remember that? It still exists. But there was a time when Scribd was a place that you went for papers and documents and Yucca: Yep. It was the place for a while. Yeah. Okay. Mark: And started getting some feedback and stuff. You know, having more of these conversations where people were confiding in me that, you know, a non theist or non literal theist way of orienting to paganism was, was theirs. And this particularly skewed towards people who were scientists, who were educators, who were engineers. You know, a lot of folks that had that grounding in the scientific method and critical thinking, they were the ones that were not subscribing to supernaturalist myths so much, interestingly enough. So, what happened was there, there ended up being enough of these people that I started realizing, you know, there's, this thing has legs. It's not just for me. It's resonating for other people, and they should have access to it too. And I need to stop here and say, I had a major research failing during the time when I was researching all the stuff for this essay, because I am not the first Nons, supernaturalist, pagan. There are other people that were doing that and that were on the internet, and I just didn't find them. Yucca: mm Mark: So I kind of reinvented the wheel. And that's an interesting thing about non Theus paganism is that it seems like that happens quite a bit. People sort of come to this conclusion on their own.  Yucca: That was the family, that was what I was raised with, right? But it had never, there was no like, there was no word or identity to distinguish, that was just what we were, Mark: Yeah. Yucca: And it had never occurred to me to, to search that up, something like that, until a little bit later on, which we haven't quite gotten to that the story yet, but, but encountering. That the belief part where, you know, later on I'd be publishing things you know, making YouTube videos or things and having people just, just furious with me that like, how dare you call yourself a pagan if you don't believe in Mark: yeah. Yucca: the gods, literally, and just being completely perplexed because that was not the paganism that I had grown up with. Right, I was just like, what are you talking about? I have no, like, what? Mark: right? Yeah. Yucca: Wait, you're, you're taking this literal? Are you sure? Okay. Right, that was where I was coming from with that because I hadn't, you know, I, I mean, I'm interrupting you a little bit with this, but you talked about like the three different phases or like the epochs that you've seen. And I think that one of them was this influx of a lot of new people into paganism, bringing with them. These expectations from some of the more mainstream religions in which faith is a major component. I think that Christian faith idea was brought in. Mark: Absolutely. Absolutely. And that came in the late 90s, up until around 2000, and that really, really changed how paganism was practiced and conceptualized within the community, at least as I experienced it. Mm hmm. Yucca: And I, and the atheopaganism was... I mean, it was still happening on the internet a lot, and when the group was founded, that was still culture of paganism as a whole, like on the big scale, there's lots of people being really into the literal belief, but I think we're moving out of that to a certain extent. But that's, there's still areas that believe that, there's still... Like, traditions in that way, but that the larger community overall is less worried about that. Mark: Yeah, I think so, and I certainly hope so. I mean, one of the things about paganism is that it tends to be very inclusive and tolerant and pluralistic. And so there are lots of different kinds of practices and perspectives that fall under the pagan umbrella, Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: And I think that increasingly, especially over the last four or five years, The idea of non theist paganism has become yet another one of those identities that's just accepted as being part of the bigger Yucca: know. Mark: Yeah, Yucca: I mean, there's still people who get very, very upset about it and want to do their gatekeeping, but it, it I definitely saw a shift in the last few years that I was that the Pagan Perspective channel was running. Like, in the first few years, it would, I would get a lot of... of real, like, really upset commenters about it, and then in the later years, more people being like, Oh yeah, that's, I do that too. Yeah, yeah, me too, me too. Mark: huh. Yeah. Yeah, I really think that's so, and, I mean, of the core questions, I mean, maybe we can do an episode at some point about validity and the nature of realness, because this is often the argument that's made, well, it's not real paganism, or it's not a real religion. And to me, those are meaningless questions. Yucca: It just comes down to how you're defining it, like, you're just gonna choose to make it real the way that you, like, Your way of pagan is the real way, right? I remember having disagreements with people going, well, if we go back to, you know, Rome, and this is where, you know, the history of the word pagan, well, the people who were the, the pagans, they believed in, in multiple gods, and, but my argument would be, okay, but why are you making that? Your criteria. Why aren't you making the criteria that they lived in the countryside and spoke, like, Latin? Like, how about, why is that the criteria? I mean, because we've had so many different criteria for what makes somebody a pagan over the years, like, you're just selecting that one specific thing to say that that's what makes somebody pagan. Why isn't something else also valid? Mark: right. Yucca: Well, I mean, the answer is because then they don't get to gatekeep it and feel special, Mark: right, Yucca: you know. Mark: right. And particularly this goes to the The sense on people's part that old traditions are somehow more valuable or more valid or more real, right? Yucca: hmm, Mark: And that's just a principle that I reject. I think humans have been evolving culture and ideas and technology and skills for our entire existence. And there are things that we can gain from modernity that we don't find in ancient cultures that are of value. Thank you. Yucca: right. Yeah, that Mark: So, Yucca: Value isn't inherent in whether it is old or new or whichever, right? Is it relevant to, to us now? Right? Mark: which is one of the reasons why I reject the Bronze Age, you know, Christianity models is that I don't think they fit very well in a modern society, Yucca: yeah. Mark: And the more people try to shoehorn modern society into it, the more oppressed we get, so, you know. So, anyway. This was starting to be a thing. It had legs. And it seemed like the next natural thing would be to find a convening place where people could come and be together and discuss this stuff. Facebook was the natural choice at that time. Yucca: Right. That was the main, there weren't as many of the other platforms as there are now. Right, that was basically the social media platform for being able to have conversation. Other than perhaps Reddit, maybe, but Reddit has its own kind of interesting culture. Mark: it does. It does. And the thing about Facebook was that you could create a closed group, a private group, so that you could have some control over what kinds of folks came in, so you knew that they were actually people who shared your values and were there for a legitimate exploration of, you know, what this practice is, what this philosophy is, all that stuff. Yucca: So you weren't getting trolls as much, or Mark: No, Yucca: coming in from different religions that wanted to prove a point, or something like that. Mark: in the 11 years since the Facebook group was founded, we have had precisely two people who have slipped in and started proselytizing Christianity, and they have been quietly removed, and that's been it. Yucca: Okay, I've never noticed them. Mark: Yeah, they didn't last long because we have moderators and the moderators, you know, our philosophy is to use a light hand and to be encouraging and guiding rather than oppressive. But nonetheless, when somebody comes in and starts proselytizing, that is a hard no in our rules. And off you go. Yucca: Also, just to chuckle it, I've always thought the strategy of let me quote from a book that you don't believe in at you to try to convince you. Mark: As evidence. Yeah. Yucca: Like, okay, cool. Mark: It's so circular and they don't see it. They just don't see it. Well, no, no, this is God's word. No, it's not. Yucca: But if I don't accept your premise of there being a god to begin with, and that this is his word, like, why would that hold any weight for me? Mark: That's right. That's right. So, so, August 5th, 2012, the the Facebook group is created, and I invited a handful of people that I thought would be philosophically aligned out of my friends within the pagan community, and then we started to get knocks on the door of people who wanted to join. And we had application questions that we could review, you know, we asked them why they wanted to be a part of the community, we stipulated what our value set was and said, do you affirm these values, you know, we're pro feminist, pro environment, anti racism, anti fascist, pro environment, you know, those kinds of things that we've listed. And, you know, we make them sign, yes, I, I will affirm these values. I think that's probably kept a lot of right wing trolls out of our group because they aren't willing to sign on to that. Yucca: hmm. Mark: We, it's not infrequent that we get applicants who will answer the first and third question, but not, not the one about values, and they don't get admitted. Yucca: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mark: That's just how it goes. Yucca: I have to admit, I don't remember filling any of that out when I joined, but I clearly had to have. I think I joined in, like, maybe 16, 20 16 or sometime around there, and I just don't remember. I'm sure I did. I just have no memory of it, like being a, like, I must have just been like, oh, of course, of course. Yes, yes. Because I don't remember it being a thing. Mark: Facebook questions, I think they only allowed one Facebook question for a long time, one admission question, and it's expanded to three now, so there may only have been one. But I'll, Yucca: through it and went like, of course. Great. I'm so excited. This is, this group exists, so Mark: And I knew who you were, so I admitted you right away. Yucca: yeah. Mark: So that, you know, that helped. So, the group began to grow, and it became 100 people, and it became 200 people, and it became 500 people, and it became 1, 000 people, and now it's close to 5, 000 people who are interested in this path, and we have very high participation. In a given month, usually 2, 500 to 3, 000 of those members will do something in the way of reacting or commenting or posting. And of course you've got your lurkers, but it's very common for somebody to jump in and say, Hey, I've been a lurker for three years, but, you know, now I have a thing to say. And it's just a lovely environment. It's safe. People support one another. There's kindness. There's very thoughtful discussion. People post really interesting stuff. It's just, it's worked out really well, and now, of course, we've spun off into having a Discord server as well while growing the movement in a bunch of ways, like this podcast. Yucca: Right which we started talking about together at the end of 2019. We didn't, we didn't get it going Mark: we waited, we waited for the pandemic and then got started. Yucca: We had like a few, we had a few episodes and then it was Two or three or something, but it was, it was Mark: It wasn't many, yeah, it happened really fast. Yucca: Yeah. Mark: And, ironically, the pandemic actually forced us to do some good things in the community. We started doing Zoom mixers, first once a week, and now twice a week, and there are other gatherings as well. Yucca: That's when a lot of growth of people coming into the community happened, too, because people were searching online for that connection, because they didn't have the in person things. And then, wow, here was this community, and that's, so much happened during the pandemic. Mark: Yeah, yeah, the population really mushroomed. And, of course at the same time, at that point, I had been working on atheopagan stuff from the beginnings of the... of the essay. And then in 2019, late 2019, my book was published, which was an expanded version of the essay with more Yucca: is when our... Friendship had kind of started, because we'd met before, but do you remember I helped you with the formatting on that? Mark: I do, Yucca: Because I took it out of, they weren't accepting whatever format it was that you had, so you had it in Word and I put it in InDesign and reformatted Mark: yeah, Yucca: it and exported it. Mark: right, yeah, which I Yucca: why we got the connection to then when we started talking about doing a podcast, it was like, oh yeah, yeah, this is a good connection, let's try this. Mark: Yeah, yeah. So the book happened, Then the podcast happened, and by that time it had been almost 15 years of working on this in one way or another for me. Yucca: Mm hmm, Mark: And I was looking at this community that was now thousands of people, and thinking, well, okay, clearly this is something that has some real resonance, and it needs to not be about me. It needs to be... You know, a self governing, self evolving thing, Yucca: hmm. Mark: and so we created the Atheopagan Society, the non profit organization of which both Yucca and I are council members and Yucca: of 2020 was our first meeting, Mark: yes, early July of 2020, and You know, that was approving bylaws and articles of incorporation and blah blah blah. There's a lot of technical stuff that has to be done to create a group like that. But we got recognized by the federal government as a religious organization. Donations are tax deductible. Yucca: Mm hmm. We did all that stuff of so much paperwork and figuring out bank accounts and Mark: Yeah, getting a bank account open turned out to be really kind of a nightmare. Yucca: ridiculous amount of like weird information that they needed. Mark: I think it's Patriot Act stuff. I think they're concerned about non profits fostering terrorism. Yucca: And therefore they needed your social and income and Mark: Yeah. Yucca: All kinds of, you know, Mark: Yeah. Yucca: yeah, it was intense. Mark: just weird. But we did it. We got it done. And the council started doing stuff. There, you know, there were various initiatives. The the library initiative online that Robin did, for example, to create a library of resources for Ethiopia Pagans that they can download and, and look at, and or, you know, lists. Yucca: package as well, Mark: all the, all the clerical and guidance as Yucca: great. Mark: And the system for ordaining. clerics online because we believe that everybody should have the right to conduct marriages and so forth. And so we had an automated system on the website for people to be ordained, which is currently broken because MailChimp changed its system. But if you want to be ordained, you can use the contact form on the Atheopagan Society website, which is VAPSociety. org. Send a, send a message through the contact system, and I will get back to you and get you ordained. Yucca: Yeah, and eventually we're going to have that back up and running as an automated system, but there's just a lot of things that are getting juggled at the moment. Mark: there are. There Yucca: There's a, yeah and just also want to clarify the, this is all volunteer, right? You know, people are, are doing this out of a sense of a desire to, So, we're really trying to, really help in whatever ways we can, and and we'll talk about this in a little bit. I mean, the, the getting everything set up for being able to have more volunteers is one of our major focuses. Mark: Mm hmm. Yucca: But just trying to figure out what, what each person's strengths are and how we can best. How we can help the community and how we can best serve the community has been a big focus of what we've been trying to do over the past few years, so. Mark: Yeah. Yeah because it's all about, you know, supporting the people that are within the umbrella of this, this community in being as fulfilled as they can be, as happy as they can be, as self actualized as they can be, as effective as they can be, which is what atheopaganism is really about. It's about being happy, being effective in your life. You know, we don't believe in an afterlife or any of that. Nobody's keeping score. It's, it's all about just joy and joy and service, right? And so, you know, with that spirit, there's a real joyfulness in the work as well. I mean, when we work together, there's a sort of, oh, we're doing a great thing here Yucca: Yeah, I mean every single, so the council meetings are quarterly, and every single time it's just like, wow, it, y'all are amazing, this is awesome. Thank you so much. Oh, I'm so lucky to know such cool people. I can't believe we're doing this like every, you know. Time after time after time and it's just, it never gets old, it's just amazing each time. Mark: Yeah. And when we held the Suntree retreat, the in person retreat in 2022, and there were 50 of us there, that was the same experience. It was like, wow, every one of these people is super cool. I would like to be friends with every one of them. Yucca: yeah, my oldest who came with me to that was like, why isn't it a week long? Why isn't it two weeks long? Can we just live here? I'm like, aw. Mark: So, things have evolved over that 11 years. I've written another book that's coming out next year. I've written in my will that the rights to my atheopaganism book are going to go to the Atheopagan Society, so that it will always have access to that material for future people that want to practice atheopaganism so there'll never be any argument about, you know, who has the rights to any of this stuff You know, we've just, we've done a lot of, we, we launched the the YouTube, Yucca: So we've got the media team working on this, yeah. Mark: right? Yucca: And I want to say the, the story, so you've told your, your thread of the story, Mark: Yes. Yucca: But this is a, this is a community of thousands of people now, and we each have our own thread of this story that's weaving together, right? And together we're making this larger thing. And I really value that, the, the wisdom in going, okay, let's make sure that this isn't just about one particular personality. This is All of ours, right? And again, that's one of the things that the council's trying to figure out how to do is how do we make this something that is sustained, that keeps going, that lives past just any of individuals of us? Mark: hmm. Yes, yes. And, and it's very egalitarian, Yucca: yeah, Mark: where we, we're not going to have, you know, different degrees or levels or priesthood or any of that kind of stuff. When people choose to be ordained and become what's called an atheopagan cleric, that's a service role. That means I've committed to provide particular kinds of service in my community. It doesn't mean I'm a muckety muck now and I get to tell other people what to do. We don't have that, Yucca: right. And same thing with the council, right? Again, the council is just, it really is a service position, just because somebody's on the council and someone else isn't on the council, the person on the council, they're... They're not more important than anyone else, they're just in a position of that volunteer. Mark: right? We don't. Right. So, you know, we've built so much over this time. Oh, and I want to mention, because we have two wonderful volunteers that are doing it, Instagram as well. We've you know, that are part of the media team. We've got a couple of folks that are doing wonderful Instagram stuff as well. And someone created an atheopaganism Reddit, subreddit, Yucca: Oh, nice. Mark: the blue a person who I didn't know. And that was kind of miraculous to stumble across. Yucca: That's great. Mark: Yeah, sort of propagating itself out into the world.  Yucca: And we don't have an official TikTok, but there are some folks from the community who are on on TikTok, and you can find, you know, you can search through the hashtag of Atheopagan, you'll come up with, you know, Robin's channel, and a couple of other folks who have that conversation. Mark: We do have an account, Yucca: we, yes, Mark: but we never post anything. Yucca: and if that's somebody's passion, hey, talk to us on the media team, we'd love, you know, each of the different platforms kind of have their own system and culture and all of that. So yes, thank you for pointing out, we really, we have one, we just don't, aren't doing it on a regular basis at this point Mark: So, Yucca: we have to do is figure out that we are, in fact, human, and have a limited amount of time and space and spoons as they say, and where do we use them. Mark: right. Yeah. And that's actually a perfect opportunity for me to thank you, Yucca, for your three years of service as the chair of the Atheopagan Society Council. You did a tremendous amount of work and modeled a tone and a can do kind of, attitude and a level headedness that I think just really served us so well. And I totally understand that it was time for you to step down and John has stepped up and that's all great. A, a, Yucca: honor, so thank you. Yeah, it's really, and I, and I look forward to continue to serve in different ways in the coming years, so. Mark: Yeah, yeah. So, all these things have happened, all these incredible things over the last 11 years, and now we look to the future. Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: The Atheopagan Society is creating its first strategic plan, Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: And a strategic plan is basically just narrowing our focus down to a few goals. That we're going to pursue over, that we're going to seek to accomplish over the next couple of years. And that's where we're going to invest our time and our energy and our money in order to accomplish those things. Our money, vast. Yucca: yes, our vast resources. Mark: yes, I think we have 5, 000 right now. I think that's something like Yucca: don't think we quite have, that's what we did last time, but I think we've, we've had quite a few expenses Mark: that's true. You're right. Yeah, we have had expenses. So yeah, it's probably more like 4, 500. But it's enough because we, you know, we operate. We operate with volunteers. Yucca: yeah, and donations. And so Mark: Yes, Yucca: who donate on a regular basis and that, that makes doing those things possible, right? So we really, really value that. Mark: Because we do have regular expenses. We have to pay for things like Zoom and MailChimp and, you know, all that Yucca: Hosting for, you know, all of that. Yeah. Mark: for the blog. Yeah. So, the strategic plan is going to be finalized at our Autumnal Equinox meeting coming up. After September 21st, I think it's October 5th, I think is the next meeting. Yucca: We'd have to look at, yeah, it's somewhere around Mark: yeah, somewhere around there. Yucca: Do you want to mention the three? We're finalizing it, but we've got the idea of what our goals are. Mark: we've, we've narrowed the goals down to three things. And they are, first of all, Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to make our spaces feel safe and inclusive and welcoming to everyone. As long as they share our values. If they're Nazis, we don't want them to feel welcome. We want them to go somewhere else. But... You know, certainly for people in marginalized communities, we want to make sure that we're really uplifting those voices and making sure that people feel safe and welcome in those spaces. Yucca: And just being really really conscious about that. And really clear about that, yeah. Mark: So that's the first. And the second is what is the second? Yucca: Well, the steady engagement and growth, yeah. Mark: right. The fostering of engagement between Ethiopia Pagans. So more more in the way of online opportunities like the conference, the vi virtual conference that we held this past spring in person opportunities like the the sun retreat that we're gonna do another one of in 2024. Yucca: which is a little less than a year away. 'cause it's in September this year. Right. Mark: Yes. So it's a little more than a year. It's a little more Yucca: Just a, you know. Mark: Yeah. But Yucca: On another full moon, I believe. Didn't we end up getting another full Mark: We did. So we're going to start working on that, you know, right after Labor Day. The, the issue there is really, and also I didn't mention this, but we have a program of affinity groups now. Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: some of which are geographically based, so they can get together in person. Because they, they all come from a particular region. Some of them are interest based, like there's an LGBTQ group, there's a BIPOC group, there's a gardening group, there's a crafting group, things like that, right? So creating opportunities and providing resources to help like Affinity Groups to get together in person, build interpersonal relationships, because, you know, community is a big thing that religion is about. And as wonderful as online community is, in person is better. And we, we'd like for people to have opportunities for that if they want them. Yucca: Right. Yeah, so for both, right? And there being a steady component and we'll talk about this in the next goal as well, but we don't want to kind of explode and spread too quickly and then collapse. Right? So we're really working on how to do this in a way that is sustainable. Mark: Yes. And that's the third big area, which is creating infrastructure and support for volunteers, so that we don't have burnout. We're always, you know, drawing in new leadership and new voices and new participation, so that nobody has to sit in the same position for 10 years and get real tired of it. And, I mean, that's just good for us in all kinds of ways, because You know, having a variety of different perspectives, it just helps our approach to be that much more nuanced, that much more considerate. It's just good for us, all the way around. Yucca: Yeah. Mark: So those are the three big areas, and you'll notice that none of them involves some big, huge growth initiative. We have never been a proselytizing spiritual community, and we're not. My philosophy around this is I would like people to be aware of this as an opportunity that they can take if they want to. I would never tell them you should be an atheopagan. Yucca: Right. Mark: I would never say that to any. Yucca: Yeah. Because it's, I think it's a wonderful option, but it's not the only thing out there. Lots of things work for lots of different people and I'm just grateful that we've got a community of incredible people who really love and care for each other and work together and can, you know, share these values and use a similar framework. And yet, as we've talked about in so many other podcasts are also so very different in so many delightful ways. Mark: Right, and we encourage that diversity, right? Like, you know, there isn't this mandated wheel of the year where, you know, the symbols are all the same and the rituals are all the same. No, you create for yourself what's meaningful for you and relates to what nature is doing at a given time of year where you are. So there's, there's a tremendous amount of freedom. Within atheopaganism, it's meant to be facilitative and supportive and kind of informing rather than directive. Yucca: hmm. Yeah. Mark: So that's where we're going. That's, that's the idea there.  Yucca: And it's a fun process. Mark: it is. It is. And fun people to do it with. So that's, that's all to the good as well. I mean, having not had any comprehension of Arriving here 11 years ago, I have no idea where we might be 10, 11 years from now. It's just, it's hard to, hard to imagine what that could be like. Yucca: Oh, we'll be an ancient group in neo pagan years at that Mark: that's, oh, that's true. Yeah, we'll be almost Bronze Age. Yucca: Yes. I guess then we'll be, then we'll be legitimate, right? Because Mark: Right, well, yeah, we'll, we'll be Silicon Age, and by that time it'll all be, you know, molecular computing or or quantum computing, and then we can look back nostalgically at our silicon chips and and yes, we'll, we'll be the old established Version. Yucca: That's quite funny to think of. Mark: It is. It is. Yucca: but yeah. . Alright. Mark: So, yeah I'd like to thank everyone that has played a part in or participated in or joined, you know, for however long, because some people have decided that it wasn't for them and gone off to do something else. All those people who have played a role in where we've arrived and what we've been able to achieve in serving people, in, in really working to help people be happier and help the world be a better place. Yucca: Yeah. Thank you. Mark: Yeah, so thank you to all you listeners, that counts. Yucca: Absolutely. We are so grateful that you are all here and Yeah. Mark: Yeah, it's Yucca: Spending this time with us. Mark: yeah, it's a real honor and we know that Of all the things that people can donate to a movement or a cause, time is the most precious. You know, the number of people that will contribute to an organization, for example, is always much higher than the number that will volunteer for the organization. Yucca: Mm-hmm. Mark: So, you know, when you give us 30, 40 minutes a week out of your day that's a very meaningful thing and we, we recognize it and we appreciate it. Yucca: right. Mark: So, with that, here's to the next 11 years! Yucca: And we'll see you next week.    

Annette and Allee preview our theme and plans for Lent at Suntree! On this episode: Annette Stile Pendergrass - Senior Pastor Allee Willcox Wood - Associate Pastor Mike Mayes - Pastor of Worship

Annette and Allee preview our theme and plans for Lent at Suntree! On this episode: Annette Stile Pendergrass - Senior Pastor Allee Willcox Wood - Associate Pastor Mike Mayes - Pastor of Worship

Poet Susan Suntree discusses her award-winning books "Sacred Sites" and "Dear Traveler," while playing the dulcimer. The audiobook "Sacred Sites" is found at "Authors Direct Suntree." www.susansuntree.com

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://youarewithinthenorms.com/2022/08/25/chapman-law-group-files-petitions-in-u-s-supreme-court-challenging-deas-unauthorized-red-flag-bullying-of-pharmacists-in-america-suntree-pharmacy-vs-dea/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/norman-j-clement/support

Remember, we welcome comments, questions and suggested topics at thewonderpodcastQs@gmail.com   S3E18 TRANSCRIPT:----more----   (Transcripts note: The transcript is currently a little rough, I need to edit it for errors and add speaker labels. We currently are on the road headed back home from the retreat, but I wanted to still get the episode up for you at the regular time. Corrections will be made over the next week to make reading easier - Yucca)   Welcome back to the Wonder: Science-based Paganism. I'm your host mark and I'm Yucca. And today we are recording live at the Suntree retreat, which is the first in-person conference gathering of non theist pagans in the atheopagan community here in Colorado Springs, Colorado USA. And so we're going to be interviewing people here about their experience and you know, how they're enjoying it and what brought them to non-thesis paganism, all that kind of stuff. So it's going to be kind of a free form podcast this time, rather than one centered around a topic.  Right. And we are recording out outside of the dining hall with a little bit of wind. So we appreciate everybody's patience with the audio today. And we also have some folks joining us on the zoom call as well, which I don't think we've ever had this many people before. Right. So, if you'd like, say hi, if you want to introduce yourself and where you're from, just to kind of put a word in, we welcome that as well. What do you want us to introduce ourselves? So, hi, I'm Addie. My pronouns are she, her and I live in Northwestern, Vermont, a little bit north of Burlington where it is currently 86 degrees in may, which is bizarre. And I'm happy to see everybody. I'm glad to hear you're having a good time. Thanks. Thank you for joining us. And if anyone else wants to jump in, yeah, go ahead. I'm Bethany and I'm from Sacramento and the high today is going to be 91. Oh. I'm Glenn in Los Angeles, the high today is supposed to be 94. And on my morning walk today, I discovered I'm in a little city called Monterey park. It's the east end of LA county. And I never would have guessed that my silly little city would have one of those little like mailbox size libraries, but I discovered one and I've never read Daniel Steele. I don't think it's probably something that I actually want to read, but I'll read a chapter and see how it goes. But that was a pretty exciting to see that just in the middle of a residential area. Nice. Oh, hi Martin. I'm from the north of the Netherlands. And currently it's 63 Fahrenheit with max or today what? 66. It's currently past 8:00 PM here. So it's completely different. Hello, I'm Bislama Buena my pronouns. Are he him? I'm currently living in college station, Texas working on my PhD at a and M. And the weather right now is 88 degrees. So, and it's pretty hot and warm here. Yeah. Well, we have beautiful weather here in Colorado Springs. It's probably low seventies right now. You don't want to be out in the sun because it's high elevation and it really, you know, it burns into you pretty fast, but the air just feels super silky and nice. And we have a very nice view of Pike's peak and the black forest surrounding it. So it's a pretty nice place to broadcast from.  It can be really unpredictable this time of year may, could be snowing, could be sweaty and hot and really windy. So jump on in here, come around to the side so that we can have you in the mic. Yep. Yeah. We've never done this live before. Hello everybody. It's good to see you. So do you want to introduce yourself real quick? So we have someone joining us slide. My name is Glenn Gordon. I've been a part of the naturalistic nontheistic pagan community for awhile. And over the last two years of COVID, I started joining the north mixers and it's just been really exciting to see a lot of the familiar faces that you guys have seen on the mixers together. And we've had some really good ceremonies I've been posting on the Facebook page a little bit. So if you want to kind of get a little bit more of a feel or details of how that's going, you can find that on the Facebook group, you can also find me posting things on Twitter and Instagram and tumbler as atheo Druid. But I just, yeah, I just wanted to find a way that you guys could somehow experience a little bit of what's going on here because we, we do miss your presence. If anybody has any questions. Go ahead. Thanks, Glen. And it's, it's wonderful to have you here. Yeah, you've been participating in atheopagan things for a very long time. Now it's gotta be like eight years or something. Which for us is a long time. You know, that's, that is not long after our founding. So, welcome. So Glenn, what do you think of the events so far? What, how are you? Glen Gordon. How do you, how are you liking this? I think mostly I'm getting this. I mean, there is a sense of community that we have really built online and I think we've done so in a way, better than other groups that I've involved with that have tried similar things, but just being here, you know, in person and, you know, seeing those familiar people and being in the same space, ritually just adds this depth. Like when we're doing a ritual online, you know, they're, they're really fun and engaging, but you know, when you're in person in a, in a ritual, there's just a depth, we can't, we just can't capture with the digital technologies. But yeah, I just feeling overwhelmed with yeah. With that sense of that sense of community. And I'm very glad that I could be here and it makes a lot of. What we've been doing and the things that we've been talking about for a long time, feel so much more tangible to me in some ways. And, and it's just I was just so excited to have seen what started off as just this little tiny, like enclave of bloggers, you know, there's me and mark. And we had John Cleveland host, who is the editor for naturalistic paganism. A little workshop about the year the wheel of the year. So it's a little, there's a little bit of a surreal, it's a realness to it too. Yeah. I, I echo that it is a little surreal when, you know, I've, I've seen these faces on the screen so many times, but now they're, they're actually eating in the dining hall behind me. They're, they're here and, you know, after our rituals last night, we hung out and drank some wine and talked about things and, you know, socialize deep into the night. So it's it's really pretty cool. So Hannah, did you want to step in? Okay. It would be, it would be to take over Glen's there. It was great to see you all. And I hope that maybe I get to see some of you here again. And when we do this in 2024. Thanks Glenn. You can pause the bike just with the cat and now we have HANA. Hello? Okay. Figure it out the mute. Hi everyone. It's so good to see you all.  So, do you have any thoughts about Suntree retreat about how that's, how that's going for you and what you're looking forward to coming up on the schedule and stuff like that? Right. Well, it's been a really lovely experience so far. I just getting to be in the same space as people who, when we've been talking about the essence of this kind of pagan expression being rooted in a sense of place, and then having us all dispersed everywhere, which is very cool, but being able to come together and actually share a space together has has been amazing. So is as far as what I'm looking forward to Michael and I are doing a workshop this afternoon, really, it's more Michael's than mine, but I'll be helping with with. Art's, you know, it's an opportunity for people to do creative projects and I I just am excited to see what people are going to be inspired by and how that will be expressed. So, yeah, it's great to be here. Cool. Cool. Well, it's wonderful to have you here. You've been a regular on the Saturday mornings zoom mixers that we do. And it's just so inspiring to meet folks like you in person after years of interacting online. Well, likewise it's and it's really been fun to meet folks who have been connected to this community, like through the discord, which I haven't spent a lot of time on. And folks here in Colorado who have just sort of had an opportunity because it's near them, they've had an opportunity to check it out and aren't as actively involved in the online community. So it's getting a chance to both see some lovely, familiar faces and neat, some brand new people who are just super cool and have so many interesting stories and beautiful ceremonial flares to, to bring to the, the fire circle. And so yeah, it's. A lot of fun. Yeah. That's very well said. I've really feel the same way. It's exciting to come together in this way and to realize that our community has matured enough, that there there's a critical mass of people that will actually travel in some cases, you know, thousands of miles in order to come and do this. It's pretty cool.  I hope that we, while we continue planning future. Opportunities together. I do hope though, that we keep our online practices and community flourishing, because it's also so lovely to have the opportunity on a regular basis to be able to connect with people in different countries and different parts of the world. And and of course, Traveling is expensive and not everybody can afford it. And so, it's, it's a great blessing that we have an online community that lets us do things communally even at distances.  Absolutely. I mean, that was one of the silver linings of COVID that we started doing all of this zoom connection. And I mean, I certainly don't have any intention of stopping doing that. Even if the pandemic is waning you know, we have a real online community and it, it feels like that. And it's, it's, you know, I'm always excited for the Saturday mixer. Who's going to show up this week and you know, what are we, what, what cool conversations are we going to have? All right. Well, I am going to go ahead and pass the mic on with gratitude to you, mark, and to Yucca and to everybody who helped make this conference possible. And also with gratitude to people who listened to this podcast who aren't here, but are part of the larger AP if you'll pagan community and make it this wonderful creative space that it is. So thank you all. Thank you, Hannah. Thank you for being part of it.  Hi. You want to introduce yourself? Yes. My name is Kaylee and I am new to atheopagan ism and I'm excited to be here. Cool. Cool. Well, thank you for being here and welcome. Welcome to the wonder. It's it's really kind of an amazing experience for me having, you know, met a bunch of these people online over the years, and now they're, they're here in person live attaching names to faces, and it's just such a cool experience. What are, how are you feeling about, about the Suntree retreats? So. Oh, it's so beautiful. I'm just like looking out and seeing all the trees and Pike's peak and I'm native to Colorado, but I've never been this close. I think I usually go to different mountain ranges, so it's so beautiful. And I think it's really cool to talk about that online community, but I'm somebody who like hasn't been involved in that online community so much. I don't really socialize there very often, so it's really cool to meet people in person as part of the community without having that background either. Everyone's really open and accepting. It's very cool.  Well, it's great to have you here. I mean, I'm just, I'm remembering from, from last night's fire circle, you know, everyone's contributions and their, you know, they, these really special moments of song and poetry and stories and observations about what's going on in life. And you know, I'm just reminded once again, that this is a really special cohort of people, I just feel so happy to be a part of it.  Yeah, absolutely need to. And it's so great to see how so many different people can meet and interact and socialize and contribute in those creative ways, because it's so difficult to do that in, you know, mainstream culture otherwise. So it's, it's very unique and very cool to see so many different walks of life come together. Yeah. So, do you have anything that you would like to say to the podcast listeners? Oh man. This is how I kind of got introduced to the topic and to the world of atheopagan isms. So I guess I would say that if anybody is out there listening, that feels, you know, that they get a sense of community from it that there's a lot more going on behind the scenes to get involved with. Cause it's a lot going on. Yeah, that's true. That's true. It consumes a significant chunk of my life. I'll tell you that. Very cool. Well, I'm going to go ahead and pass it on. Okay. Enjoy lunch. Thank you. All right. Hi my name's Teagan, and I'm glad to see all y'all spaces on here. Looking at the zoom. So Suntree retreat, what do you think? What brought you here and how are you liking it? Yeah, it's, it's lovely out here. I escaped some of the Texas heat to get into this cool weather. But I, I really want to echo what, what folks have been saying and what you've been saying about this in person connection. It's, it's such a big difference to meet people face to face and have real conversations with them and to sleep alongside people in a yurt is so different than, you know, commenting on a Facebook comment section. So it's, it's really got me thinking which really got me thinking forward to the future, you know, beyond the retreat, the, the in-person connections that we can continue. So I'm really looking forward to trying to, to grow and strengthen the regional affiliate affinity groups, because I'll be in Chicago. So I want to get that kind of organized and off the ground. And I wanted to ask if, if there's ever been like conversation about organizing like, campus groups. Cause I just graduated college yesterday and I see a huge potential for student organizers to have atheopagan clubs on their campuses. You know, you know, it probably shows how old I am, but it never crossed my mind the first time I ever thought of it. And it's a great idea. We could, you know, create some materials and you know, sort of a startup kit. For campus groups that people could download and use as resources. That's a wonderful idea. I like it a lot. Yeah. I'd love to work on something like that because the campus groups are often used to, you know, functioning without a whole lot of resources and financial support. And it's a lot of people who are living in an already kind of a communal environment. So I think it'd be a great opportunity for people to learn about this intersection of of this naturalists, this naturalistic pagan path and start putting these new practices because your whole life, you know, often gets approved and moving to a new city to go to college. You're away from your family having like holiday celebrations with your, your college dorm mates and cooking food together. I think, I think if your big aneurysm has a lot to offer college students and they have a lot to offer it. Yeah. It's a wonderful idea. I really like it. And we will be talking more about this idea. I promise ASAM. Yeah, I'm, I'm seeing I'm. I feel like I'm one of the few, you know, younger folks here at third street today. So I, I hope by the next Suntree retreat, I can see some more people around my age. I'm 22 years old right now. So I think that will be my goal for 2024. Nice. I love it. All right, cool. Oh, and one more thing before I I'll, I'll pass it along. But last night, mark, you were talking about that society right now seems to be at a place where people are really rejecting this framework that you've been handed. And, and that the atheopagan ism is a large part of kind of reconstructing things that we were choosing to invest in. And you know, I think young people are right there, you know, we're, we're ready to revolutionize them and radicalized. And so, yeah, definitely want to tap into that, but I, I heard you really equity that sentiment that I hear in my community is of, of young people. Nice, nice. Yeah. I think. I mean for so long. I mean, for centuries, people have, they've had their lives kind of put on the rails, right. You go to school and at some point your school ends and then you go to a job and you do the job and then you partner up and you have kids, and it's just, you know, this formula that people didn't feel like they had a lot of choice about. And I think we're asking a lot of questions now about, you know, what about alternative forms of families? What about alternative forms of relationships? What about what about not, you know, running on a treadmill for capitalism for, for your entire life? There, there are other ways to live and a part of what we're talking about in atheopagan ism is how can we build our lives around a different set of values that are much more affirming of who we are as people, as well as the planet. Absolutely. Definitely agree with all of that. I'll pass it off to the next person. Thank you. Hello, Michael. How's it going? Yeah, it's, it's been it's been a beautiful couple of days here so far. Nice weather and just beautiful scenery and I've been really enjoying it so far. Just getting to, getting to spend time with all of these great people. Well, thank you for your workshop this morning, and I'm really looking forward to, to doing some artistic creation stuff with you and Hannah this afternoon. It's, you know, the, the workshops have all just been really great and entertaining and interesting and and of course the rituals and the socializing and all of that has just. Just wonderful for me. Yeah. For those who weren't there. We just had I led a workshop about how to kind of bring more ritual into your meal planning and like, how you can make meals more meaningful especially in a community setting. So, so I gave a few examples and then I had people break into groups and make seven, a seven course meal that had like symbolism important to them. So just to kind of write up a plan for it. And it was, people came up with some really good ideas. One of my favorite ideas that came up during lash during the workshop was. It was the theme of theme of truth. And somebody suggested creme brulee because you have to break through to get to the truth. I love it. I love it. That's great. Yeah. I was sorry. I wasn't able to be at that part. I was, I had to leave when the, when the breakout group started so that we could set up here for the podcast. But what fun? What a cool. Yeah, we also churn some butter as well, and we're going to make some oatcakes a little later and then we'll use the butter we made to spread on the old cakes. Did the butter actually come out? I remember there was a question about whether it was the cream was staying liquid or not. It's still, it needs a little bit more work. It's a work in progress. I think that the issue is that when you are making butter you need to leave the cream out for six to eight hours. So, and we only left it out for three hours,  so I think it was still, is it that it was too cold? Yes. Yeah. I see. Cool. And has it's good to see other everybody else here in the call as well, unless I'm sorry, you couldn't make it, but thinking about everybody who we've had square community online for, for two years now,  Yeah. And we're going to keep doing that. I mean, not, not only the podcast, but we're going to keep doing the Saturday mixers and other online gatherings because, you know, we, we do, we have a real community that, that, you know, has people from all over the world. So it's, it's pretty cool. But there was certainly yesterday, there was this sort of thrill of like, well, that's my goal. Michael's really here.  Yeah. It's just strange thing. People in real life after two years of video camera. Yeah.  Bethany and I met one another at a, an affinity group live meeting that we had for may day. And it was like, yes. Okay. And that's when I met Glen Gordon for the first time. And I mean, Glenn and I had been online communicating for about eight years in one form or another, and I'd never seen him before in person. So pretty cool. I really love that. We're we're doing this in real life stuff as well as online. Yeah. So I hope hope we have a bit people who can't make it this time and we'll see you in 2024 at our next Suntree retreat,  you can put it in your calendar. It's the first weekend in September, 2024. We don't have the bandwidth to do this every year and I don't think people can afford to come to it every year anyway. But if you can plan for it for, you know, a year and a few months or two years in a few months from now, hopefully you'll be able to come. It'll be at the same location here north of Colorado Springs. Yeah. Yep. Pretty cool. Very cool. So, Michael, do you have any words of wisdom for the listeners to the podcast? I'll just reiterate what I said in my workshop, you know, don't be intimidated by trying to build a ritual practice. We already live ritually in a lot of ways. And like the meals we eat every day can be the basis for building something very meaningful. Just just consider the food that you're eating and the time of year and what you want to, maybe what you want to get out of the meal more than just nourishment. Like, do you want to, do you want joy or do you want healing or do you want to have some fun? Like, what is, what, what are you trying to get out of the meals and bring, bring that into the meal when you're cooking it. Nice. Thank you, Michael. Yeah. Oh, one thing, that one thing that is kind of a challenge for me here is that I live at sea level and we are now up around 7,000 feet and the air is so thin. It's just, I mean, just walking from here to where the yurts are, where I'm sleeping, I'm huffing and puffing because it's, there's just no oxygen here as far as my body's concerned. So that's, that's really an eye-opener well, I'm going to get back to lunch and I'm going to pass back to to Yucca again. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Great to see you, Michael. Bye. So rounding up people and we have another person here want to jump in. Hello. Hey, Rano welcome. Good to see all in here. You all welcome to the wonder. Thanks for. So you want to, you want to tell people who you are and what you're doing here. So I'm Ronna and I've been a part of the atheopagan group for the last two years. It's been a very long two years, as you all know, and it's just been wonderful to have this community as a sort of like grounding, especially. The time that I joined the group was at the very beginning of the pandemic. And it was just very fortunate timing of having a sense of fellowship and community and planting all kinds of interesting seeds of ideas about meaning and creating your own meeting with. Um, Superstition, you know, I know we have a lot of discussion around things like that. yeah. I mean, you've been a great participant for a long time. I mean, you participate in our monthly adult sex salon conversations every time. And you're often on the Saturday mixers. So you've, you've really been, you know, kind of a linchpin of the, of the online communities and it's been great to meet you in person. Thank you. It's been very special to have that feeling of belonging. I've always kind of envied people that are religious. I was not raised religious. I've never felt religious and I've always kind of envied them that they have an easier way to have a way to find connection and community as an adult, because it is difficult, especially once you leave like college. I think it can be really hard to make genuine, meaningful friendships. And there's a real shortcut to that when you share a faith or some kind of path with other people and I've never quite fit into the majority of other. Paths and things that are out there. So yeah, this has been very meaningful and it is wonderful to meet everyone in person and just kind of feels like a nice breath of fresh air after this long, two years of everything. And, and I, I appreciate that the community also has a sense of holding space. Like you mentioned, the, the adult salon. I think it's important to have these held spaces to talk about things that are vulnerable and that there just aren't a lot of Places sometimes that people can talk or also get resources and information, especially given especially in American culture. It's sometimes, sometimes there is a great access to that. So I really value that.  Well, you have been a tremendous contributor in that regard. I mean, you're just sort of a walking resource on all these wonderful, you know, on polyamory and alternative relationship forms and on, you know, and fee agentic drugs and psychedelics and just all these, you know, very interesting, very alternative very thought-provoking and kind of growth promoting things that people are doing now. And so I just want to say how much I really appreciate, you know, your role in all of that, because I think that those monthly salons that we do have been much richer because you've been in the.  Thank you. I really appreciate that. It just, it feels really nice to feel like I belong somewhere. So thank you for having me. Yeah. Well, anywhere I am you belong as far as I'm concerned.  Oh, thank you. It was good seeing you all.  Thanks Rhonda. I take care. Hi, welcome to the wonder. Hello. Excuse me. I'm wearing a mask because there's pollen all over here in Colorado Springs and I am congested from all the pollen and I'm trying to, to not fall over everywhere. So hi. You want to introduce yourself and say, you know, how you find yourself at a Suntree retreat and how you're liking it. Sure. Yeah, so my name is Kim and I've, I felt pretty lucky that the Suntree retreat was going to be held so close to where I live. I've never attended a pigging event before. And so this is my first time doing non solo, like very expressly Pegan things for other people. And so, It made it easy for me to make the decision to, to come and attend being so close to where I live. I live in Denver and, and this is just just south of me. Yeah, but it's been really interesting.  It's cool to see all the different perspectives and different expressions of atheopagan beliefs, even among the small little group that's here. And and it's nice to be able to kind of, you know, throw ideas out and and get feedback. I have reached out to a local a local Drood group cause I'm, I'm involved in OBOD as well. And. I wasn't, I couldn't quite get a feel on how how literally they were taking the goddess and the gods. And so I didn't feel exactly in place there, even though we share a lot of beliefs, so to come here and to express those doubts freely and openly with with other people who also. If they use the deities in their practice, it's entirely as metaphor. And you know, being able to explore with them well, how do you, you know, strengthen that metaphor in your mind is kind of useful and to be able to bounce those ideas off people. Yeah. I mean, I find that with every individual that I talk with, while I'm here, there's something unique, right? There's, there's, you know, some particular spin on, you know, how they do their rituals or, you know, how they look at the wheel of the year or any of those things. And to me, that's just so exciting. Cause I really, I really think of atheopagan ism is kind of a DIY sort of path, right? It's like there's these frameworks and principles and things, but how you implement it is entirely up to you, right? Yeah. And, and it's a lot, I've kind of struggled a little bit with really bringing my attention and focus into the the pillars and the principles. And so to be able to attend workshops where those are specifically called out has been actually helpful. That's good to know. Yeah. So, I've, like I said, I've really been focused on my druidic work and this is a great opportunity to really expand with the atheopagan focus and how can I. Bend what I've been working on to more of what you've laid out. And there are a lot of things about the druidic principles that really integrate very well with the atheopagan concept. So I, I think there's a really rich vein to mine there. I think there's a lot of cool ways to put all that stuff together. So I was like a cool adventure. Yeah. And I know that there are a few other Druids in the group here and we've on the Facebook what is it called? I think it's atheopagan Druids. Yeah. I was trying to remember the association side or no, the affinity side group. Yes. Affinity group. We had a discussion going, okay. Who's going to be there and let's see if we can, you know, maybe workshops some stuff and try to try to kind of put in our atheopagan principles into some of our Druid rituals and such. So I haven't actually gotten out and had those conversations yet, but there's still a day and a half, two days left, so yeah. Well, thanks Kim. It's, it's great to have you here. I'm so glad to have met you in person, and it's really, it's wonderful to have you on the wonder. Thank you. It's very nice to be here on the wonder and thank you for having me. Sure. Hello. Hi, John, you want to tell people who you are and how you got here. And what's interesting about Suntree retreat for you.  Sure, mark. Yeah. Hi everyone. I'm John Cleveland host. I have a background in the sciences and I've done a lot of research and I've also active. Developing and helping promote reality-based pagan pass and atheopagan ism is such a wonderful example of that is so great to see how well it's taken off over the years. And to that end, I should let our listeners know that John serves John, like Yucca and myself serves on the council of the atheopagan society, which is the nonprofit organization the nonprofit religious organization that we founded a couple of years ago to help support and provide resources and writing and thinking and all that kind of stuff for atheopagan is all over the world. So really appreciate all of your contributions, John, to, to the, the stuff that we're doing. Thanks, mark. Yeah. And to speak to you asked what I was looking forward to here. I'm looking forward to a lot of things. So a lot of the workshops looks really interesting. The one on pig and history looks interesting and the in so many other activities go beyond. You know, just learning, but, but experiencing and living the bardic circle tonight should be wonderful. And just being here in this, in this wonderful location where we can look at the mountains and with the Pines all around us. And it's such a vibrant group of people. We've had very interesting, interesting conversations with various people about the different you know, the, the way that they're implementing atheopagan ism in their life and, and how much it's doing for them. It's really wonderful to see in here. Yeah, I totally agree. It's it's really, I mean, it kind of makes sense that it would be inspiring for me since since I sourced a bunch of the material about atheopagan. To me, it's just so moving that people are really enriching their lives with this stuff. You know, finding, finding more, meaning more community, more more depth in the way that they're living their lives through. Rituals and practices and observances and getting more in touch with what's happening in the natural world around them. So I just, I'm really excited about it. I think it's so cool. Yeah, it is it exciting is a great word for that. It's exciting to see how much is there when people start to tap into these deep Wells of reality based spirituality that that can connect us all to so much more that that exists about being human. So many things that our ancestors experienced at different times and that we can still experience today. Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah. And you, you mentioned our ancestors. I mean, I think that one thing to always keep in mind is that the wheel gets invented over and over again. Right, right, right. You know, there there's, there's a lot that our ancestors knew. You know, going way back going tens of thousands of years. There's a lot that our ancestors knew about being connected with nature that we in our current over culture or our mainstream culture have really lost track of. And so, reinventing the wheel and going back to some of that perspective and those practices is a way for us to chart a path forward. That's much less destructive and much more happiness inducing.  Yeah, for sure. And I think that, I think that I see errors on either side. Sometimes people can forget the, the wealth of knowledge and understanding and experience that our ancestors had and miss the some of the potential there that that can be tapped into. And at the same time, I can also see sometimes people sometimes idolized everything about the ancestors and the way things used to be. When does there's a lot of things that are better to yeah. Yeah. I'm really not into neolithic medical care myself. Oh, right. Exactly. I mean, you're talking to someone here has had two tooth abscesses, which would have been fatal and had the whole inside of my head carved open for a brain tumor and any of those, and we wouldn't be talking here today. So yeah, it is, it's certainly it takes attention and balance to look at each thing as it's proposed and considered to say, you know, is this, is this healthy, beneficial, longterm for human thriving and thriving of the entire web of life, our whole family tree of life on earth for each thing. And some of them are, and some of them. Right, right. Absolutely. That's really well said. Well, thank you, John. Thank you. Great to have you on the wonder. Yeah, thanks. Great to be here at this unbelievable Suntree retreat.  Hey Robin. Hello, welcome. Yeah. You want to tell people who you are and what you do in here? So I'm Robin. I am one of the council members. I've done a couple of projects, the atheopagan book club, the if you're pigging photo share and the library that we watched too. Right. So cool. So, what are your thoughts about Suntree retreat? It is really gorgeous. It's wonderful to see everybody in person. I love the conversations that are happening.  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm just over the moon, just having such a good time  and I'm, I'm really excited to see what sort of our next steps might be after this, because I think some of the conversations we're having here is about the direction that we want to take and what what's going to be coming down for us in the future and what we have the capacity to do. Does anybody here have thoughts about that, Glen Eddy, the som any thoughts about that? That's cool. Anything off the top of my head? Fair enough. It was asked that, say that again. Oh, I guess my question is, you know, like where do you see us going in the future? What do you think should be our, what should be our next projects? What are the things we should be working on and doing in the future? You know, I think for me sort of promoting understanding, and, and by promoting understanding, that's an entirely different thing than proselytizing, which I think. Proselytizing in, in my, my own experience is not an effective or helpful thing for anyone ever anywhere.  It's spiritual violence personally. I think there's, it's, it's unethical to proselytize a religion.  Fair enough. I think I'd agree with that. So definitely not that, but you know, somebody a few speakers back mentioned, you know, campus groups and you know, that doesn't have to be proselytizing, but it's, you know, the campus community, in addition to a million other kinds of groups, there are a whole bunch of religious groups. And so if you're looking for that kind of connection, those are sort of the only choices that university campuses that I know of have. And so I think. I mean, really, to me, kind of it's living by example. It's you know, I, I don't need to preach my perspective to you, but maybe just try to live an authentic life and, and you can take it as you take it. Yeah. It's amazing to me, how many, and I had this experience too, of finding out, like there are other people that believe the same way that I do. And that I, you know, I've seen a lot of other people coming into this communities, having that same experience, like, oh my gosh, I'm not the only one. And it'd be great for resources to be out there. And like that knowledge to be more available, not so that we can turn everybody into atheopagan, but so that the people who are already inclined towards this path no it's an option is, would be ideal too.  Yeah. You know, I remember this is already years ago, but reading an article about, I don't know if it was just the internet generally or something specific, but the idea that, you know, if you're, if you're young and gay in San Francisco, that still could be challenging, but at least you're going to find people. But if you're young and gay and some small town in the middle of America, you might not know a single other person who's like you. And, you know, you might think you're the only person. And, and, and so this particular article was saying that the internet was great because you could find communities, whether they were down the street from you or another state or another country. And the same idea that you're expressing just that, you know, it's just existing and letting people have access to that option. That perspective.  Yeah, that's really well said. By the way, that was Glen in Los Angeles. Who's joining us here on the call remotely by zoom.  I also one thing that I know I really want to take into the future and what I've tried to do with the projects that I make is like, I think everybody in this community has something to share. And it's really important to me. To make sure we're creating opportunities for them to share. Like it's, you know, it shouldn't just be sorry, mark, but it shouldn't just be mark being like, well, this is what I think. Yeah. Right. And yeah. And, and so I really like to create opportunities where it's like, Hey, you know, this is the rough format, you know, it's a book club and we're having a discussion about this. Or you know, it's a photo share and you're taking pictures about this, but you're able to put your own spin on it and share your background. And I would really, I really hope to keep on doing projects like that in the future. And creating. Opportunities to people to share their, their knowledge and their their shrinks. So, yeah. Great, great. Thank you for everything that you've done already for the community and that you're doing and for for that ethic. Cause I think that brings a lot to the table. There's, you know, the people here and the people in our broader community are so creative and interesting and thoughtful creating opportunities for them to weigh in is really important. Well, thanks Robin. I think we're going to hand it back over to Yucca and wrap up the podcast. Okay. Well it looks like folks are getting ready for the next activity.  Okay, well, maybe you and I need to run and grab some lunch real quick and things. So, but you know, mark, before we do finish up, was there anything you wanted to talk about your experience? I know you've been doing it a little bit, but this has been a long time, a long time in the making. Have you been feeling it's fulfilling everything I hoped for honestly the, you know, the attendance is enough to really be a critical mass for the rituals and the socializing and all that kind of stuff. And the workshops are thought provoking and interesting. The people are lovely. The, the ritual that we did last night I thought was really moving, you know, people's contributions and their their creativity. And I know that there's just so much more coming up on the schedule here. So, I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. I just think it's really cool.  Yeah. Well, it's amazing to be here, so. And I got to meet you in person. I know that was, that was fantastic. It's we've been talking for two and a half years every week or so that's been amazing. It's been amazing to see people, you know, not just on the screen, but in, in the flesh, so,  yeah. Yeah, yeah. And it's, it's wonderful to meet your daughter. We've been having a blast. I asked her if she wanted to come on and she was going to, and then she saw some other kids and they're running around. She was excited, but then Nope. So, well, let's finish up and get some lunch and thank you everybody for joining us and hanging out through the whole, the whole talk.  So yeah. And we will see you next week on the wonder science-based paganism.   

When it comes to gourmet cuisine artwork, Christopher Morales has mastered the craft.  When you follow @0ui.Chef of Instagram, you might get an appetite for some Chef's Table chef tasting menu. Chef Christopher is the Executive Chef at Chef's Table in Suntree, Florida. We hope you enjoy this episode. Thanks for the support.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/Podcast321)

Lean, Green and Clean. It's all about juice baby!Jesse and Darleen welcome Steve, the operator of @CleanJuiceMelbourne located in the Pineda Crossings plaza near Fresh Market in Suntree. And it's not just certified organic juice, they have salads, bowls and wraps plus so much more.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/Podcast321)

We sat down with Grace Stiles Williams to hear about her journey to Suntree and the plans for Suntree Kids this summer. We also give her a quiz covering important kid's ministry and pop culture knowledge. Suntree Kid's Summer Dates: June 22 - Summer of Creation: Art Camp July 6 - Summer of Creation: Nature Camp July 20 - Summer of Creation: Theater Camp August 3 - Summer of Creation: Water Camp *WARNING* Spoilers for events in the Harry Potter series are mentioned in this episode On this episode: Tanner Smith - Director of Communications and Media Grace Stiles Williams - Interim Director of Children Ministry

We sat down with Grace Stiles Williams to hear about her journey to Suntree and the plans for Suntree Kids this summer. We also give her a quiz covering important kid's ministry and pop culture knowledge. Suntree Kid's Summer Dates: June 22 - Summer of Creation: Art Camp July 6 - Summer of Creation: Nature Camp July 20 - Summer of Creation: Theater Camp August 3 - Summer of Creation: Water Camp *WARNING* Spoilers for events in the Harry Potter series are mentioned in this episode On this episode: Tanner Smith - Director of Communications and Media Grace Stiles Williams - Interim Director of Children Ministry

Dr. Novo reviews one of her favorite and high demand procedures - The Hetter Chemical Peel. Learn about the history, indications, procedure experience and post care recovery of this popular service.

We sat down with some of the people who plan worship each week at Suntree to learn what that process looks like. On this episode: Tanner Smith - Director of Communications and Media Ulrike Gonzalez - Coordinator of Welcome and Lay Ministries Mike Mayes- Pastor of Worship Ministry Annette Stiles Pendergrass - Senior Pastor Allee Willcox - Associate Pastor

We sat down with some of the people who plan worship each week at Suntree to learn what that process looks like. On this episode: Tanner Smith - Director of Communications and Media Ulrike Gonzalez - Coordinator of Welcome and Lay Ministries Mike Mayes- Pastor of Worship Ministry Annette Stiles Pendergrass - Senior Pastor Allee Willcox - Associate Pastor

Suntree - Layers (Original mix) Face the Music - Iboga Records http://musicshop.iboga.dk/store/view_release?release=1632 IBOGADIGITAL696 1. Suntree - John Doe (Original mix) 2. Suntree - Imagination (Original mix) 3. Suntree - Layers (Original mix) 4. Suntree - Frequencies & Tones (Original mix) 5. Suntree - Point of View (Original mix) 6. Suntree - Motivated (Original mix) 7. Suntree - Face the Music (Original mix) 8. Suntree - Freak (Original mix) 9. Suntree - To the Unknown (Original mix) 10. Suntree - Best Version of Yourself (Original mix) Every path you take leads to another choice. Face the Music is us. Our choices. Our decisions. Our path. It is literally the point where you meet my music and my soul. During the album creation I went through a process as an artist and as a person. I realized that beside the message and the music content that I would like to deliver, I'm also seeking my own unique sound that will wrap it all. As a result, I switched my equipment and sound to analog. This analog world made me change the way I think about sound in general, and the change occurred as a result of digging deeper into it. I wanted to take this dynamic that exists in the analog world and bring it forward into my music. To make it more loose and live, less compressed, more emotional, less technical. I feel I've succeeded in doing this.The whole process took me four years and I'm happy with each second of it, since the path is more important for me than the result This album is dedicated to life and death, and what's in between them. Alon Brilant 2021 Iboga Records Iboga Records

Suntree - Imagination (Original mix) Face the Music - Iboga Records http://musicshop.iboga.dk/store/view_release?release=1632 IBOGADIGITAL696 1. Suntree - John Doe (Original mix) 2. Suntree - Imagination (Original mix) 3. Suntree - Layers (Original mix) 4. Suntree - Frequencies & Tones (Original mix) 5. Suntree - Point of View (Original mix) 6. Suntree - Motivated (Original mix) 7. Suntree - Face the Music (Original mix) 8. Suntree - Freak (Original mix) 9. Suntree - To the Unknown (Original mix) 10. Suntree - Best Version of Yourself (Original mix) Every path you take leads to another choice. Face the Music is us. Our choices. Our decisions. Our path. It is literally the point where you meet my music and my soul. During the album creation I went through a process as an artist and as a person. I realized that beside the message and the music content that I would like to deliver, I'm also seeking my own unique sound that will wrap it all. As a result, I switched my equipment and sound to analog. This analog world made me change the way I think about sound in general, and the change occurred as a result of digging deeper into it. I wanted to take this dynamic that exists in the analog world and bring it forward into my music. To make it more loose and live, less compressed, more emotional, less technical. I feel I've succeeded in doing this.The whole process took me four years and I'm happy with each second of it, since the path is more important for me than the result This album is dedicated to life and death, and what's in between them. Alon Brilant 2021 Iboga Records Iboga Records

Suntree - Motivated (Original mix) Face the Music - Iboga Records http://musicshop.iboga.dk/store/view_release?release=1632 IBOGADIGITAL696 1. Suntree - John Doe (Original mix) 2. Suntree - Imagination (Original mix) 3. Suntree - Layers (Original mix) 4. Suntree - Frequencies & Tones (Original mix) 5. Suntree - Point of View (Original mix) 6. Suntree - Motivated (Original mix) 7. Suntree - Face the Music (Original mix) 8. Suntree - Freak (Original mix) 9. Suntree - To the Unknown (Original mix) 10. Suntree - Best Version of Yourself (Original mix) Every path you take leads to another choice. Face the Music is us. Our choices. Our decisions. Our path. It is literally the point where you meet my music and my soul. During the album creation I went through a process as an artist and as a person. I realized that beside the message and the music content that I would like to deliver, I'm also seeking my own unique sound that will wrap it all. As a result, I switched my equipment and sound to analog. This analog world made me change the way I think about sound in general, and the change occurred as a result of digging deeper into it. I wanted to take this dynamic that exists in the analog world and bring it forward into my music. To make it more loose and live, less compressed, more emotional, less technical. I feel I've succeeded in doing this.The whole process took me four years and I'm happy with each second of it, since the path is more important for me than the result This album is dedicated to life and death, and what's in between them. Alon Brilant 2021 Iboga Records Iboga Records

Suntree - Best Version of Yourself (Original mix) Face the Music - Iboga Records http://musicshop.iboga.dk/store/view_release?release=1632 IBOGADIGITAL696 1. Suntree - John Doe (Original mix) 2. Suntree - Imagination (Original mix) 3. Suntree - Layers (Original mix) 4. Suntree - Frequencies & Tones (Original mix) 5. Suntree - Point of View (Original mix) 6. Suntree - Motivated (Original mix) 7. Suntree - Face the Music (Original mix) 8. Suntree - Freak (Original mix) 9. Suntree - To the Unknown (Original mix) 10. Suntree - Best Version of Yourself (Original mix) Every path you take leads to another choice. Face the Music is us. Our choices. Our decisions. Our path. It is literally the point where you meet my music and my soul. During the album creation I went through a process as an artist and as a person. I realized that beside the message and the music content that I would like to deliver, I'm also seeking my own unique sound that will wrap it all. As a result, I switched my equipment and sound to analog. This analog world made me change the way I think about sound in general, and the change occurred as a result of digging deeper into it. I wanted to take this dynamic that exists in the analog world and bring it forward into my music. To make it more loose and live, less compressed, more emotional, less technical. I feel I've succeeded in doing this.The whole process took me four years and I'm happy with each second of it, since the path is more important for me than the result This album is dedicated to life and death, and what's in between them. Alon Brilant 2021 Iboga Records Iboga Records

Tune in to this episode as Mitch Ribak share his keys to success in real estate. Mitch has been a marketer his entire life. In his younger years, it all revolved around radio, tv and print. Since 1994, Mitch has been involved mainly in Internet Marketing. From being one of the first online dating services in 1995 to being a top producing brokerage utilizing the Internet in our Real Estate offices, the Internet has changed everything! If you are working to understand the Internet and what it can do for your business, please don't hesitate to ask Mitch. He always available help those reach the next level of their business. The Internet is the best tool of our time! Mitch Ribak opened the doors to Tropical Realty of Suntree in 2005 and expanded the business to include Tropical Realty Beachside in 2014. Combining the businesses and partnering with a cloud brokerage in May of 2017, They are now Tropical Beachside powered by eXp Realty, LLC Mitch says he made the move to provide his agents with “the ability to continue to excel and grow through world class support, programs and the most agent-centric revenue opportunities available today.” Also in consideration of the move was YOU, the customer now having access to a network of agents in the USA and Canada, virtual offices and referral networks, our agents can now work for you from anywhere with constant access to fellow agents and support staff around the world! Connect with Mitch on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitch-ribak-8497531/

This week we are focusing on our March mission partner, Zoe Empowers. Suntree has committed to supporting a group of orphans living in Rwanda through a three-year cycle that will end with them achieving food security, building safe housing, and setting up one or more small businesses. We learn all about Zoe's amazing local-centric model from Molly McEntire. On this episode: Tanner Smith - Director of Communications & Media Staci Plonsky - Director of Outreach Molly McEntire - FLUMC Mission Training & Volunteer Coordinator

Pastor Mike is here to tell us about our new church app! On this episode: Mike Mayes - Pastor of Worship Arts Tanner Smith- Director of Communications and Media

This week the pastors and staff discuss the impact that your generosity has on mission and ministries of Suntree UMC! Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Ulrike Gonzalez (Coordinator of Welcome and Lay Ministries)

This week the pastors and staff answer the question: how do we stay content?   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Lia Page (Director of Children's Ministry)

This week the pastors and staff answer the question: what have we been the most grateful for during this season? Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Tanner Smith (Director of Communication and Media)

Welcome to SUPP, the quarantine edition! This week the pastors and staff meet on zoom and breakdown the question of: why we love Suntree.   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Ulrike Gonzalez (Coordinator of Welcome and Lay Ministries)

This week we talk all about forgiveness! Wee talk about what forgiveness means to us and how important it is to practice forgiveness. Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Staci Plonksy (Director of Outreach)

This week we talk all about conflict! We are diving into a new sermon series: Teachable Moments, and we talk about what it means to have healthy conflict. Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Ulrike Gonzalez (Coordinator of Welcome and Lay Ministries)

This week we talk about Stage 4 of our Launch Initiative and talk about what it means to have “extraordinary love”. If you have like any of the episodes in this Launch series, check out our Grow map at: suntreeumc.org/grow   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts)

This week we talk about Stage 3 of our Launch Initiative and talk about what it means to love our neighbors. We also have a VERY special guest: Rev. Sean Peters, Pastor at Mosaic Church Palm Bay!!   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Special Guest: Rev. Sean Peters of Mosaic Church Palm Bay   Check out what Pastor Sean is doing by visit Mosaic's website at: https://www.mosaicpalmbay.com/

This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we are continue in our series on Launch intro Extraordinary love! We dive into what it means to love other people and have meaningful Christian relationships.   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts)

This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we are starting a series on Launch intro Extraordinary love! We dive into what it means to fall in love with and stay in love with God.   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts)

This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we talk about the people / authors / artists that have most influenced our faith!   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Ulrike Gonzalez (Coordinator of Welcome and Lay Ministries)

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This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we talk all about fear   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Augie Allen Pastor Joel Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts)

Suntree United Pastor's Podcast! (SUPP) Episode 9 - Grief This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we talk all about grief   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Augie Allen Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Rev. Dr. John Baggett Diane Baggett   Check out Dr. Baggett's book here: https://amzn.to/370nflu

This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we talk all about fun!   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Augie Allen Pastor Joel Lusz Pastor Steve Schantz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts)

This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we talk to Deana, who is our brand new Assistant Director of Congregational Care!   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Allee Willcox Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Deana Massy-Dunlop (Assistant Director of Congregational Care)

This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we talk about parenting, AND we have a bunch of guests!   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Joel Lusz Pastor Steve Schantz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts) Lia Page (Director of Children's Ministry) Mary Allen (Assistant Director of Children's Ministry) Ulrike Gonzalez (Coordinator of Welcome and Lay Ministries)

This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we talk about transitions!   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles-Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Augie Allen Pastor Joel Lusz Pastor Steve Schantz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts)   We still don't have a name for our podcast either! So if you have a suggestion, let us know

This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we talk about self care!   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Augie Allen Pastor Joel Lusz Pastor Steve Schantz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts)   We still don't have a name for our podcast either! So if you have a suggestion, let us know

This week on the Suntree Pastor's Podcast we talk about all things community related!   Featured on this week's episode: Pastor Annette Stiles-Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Augie Allen Pastor Joel Lusz Pastor Steve Schantz Mike Mayes (Director of Worship Arts)

This week the Pastors at Suntree discuss the question "what does the church mean to you?" Featured on this episode: Pastor Annette-Stiles Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Augie Allen Pastor Joel Lusz Pastor Steve Schantz We still don't have a name for out podcast! If you have an idea, let us know :-)

Episode 1 - How are you dealing with the Coronavirus? Featured on this episode: Pastor Annette Stiles-Pendergrass Pastor Allee Willcox Pastor Augie Allen Pastor Joel Lusz Pastor Steve Schantz

Martin Vice, Alexander Descroix, Ritmo & Iboga Records bring you the 26th edition of the Iboga Radio Show. The guys showcase new tracks including tunes from the new album by Off Limits & a special guest dj-set by newly signed Iboga artist Ritmo. Tonights playlist: 1. NASA - Solitude (Oliver Jones Remix) 2. Lauge - Vandringen (One Man Orchestra Remix) 3. Perfect Stranger - Timewarp (MVMB Remix) 4. Martin Vice & ALIGN - Acacia (Original mix) 5. Off Limits - Desert Experience (Original mix) 6. Off Limits - Alchemy (Original mix) Ritmo's Dj-set playlist: 1. Ritmo & Animato - Deepest Level 2. Perfect Stranger & Liquid Soul - Our Time (Rocky Tilbor Rmx) 3. Ritmo - Adventures (Phanatic Rmx) 4. Gaudium - Influenced To Vibrate 5. Ritmo - Time Perception 6. Artificials - Faces 7. Suntree & Easy Riders - From Another Perspective 8. Freedom Fighters & Ticon - Thousand Light Years 9. Prodigy - Narayan (Silent Sphere Rmx) 10. Ritmo- Your Gate For Freedom 11. Ace Ventura & Coming Soon - Say What 12. Ritmo & Sphera - Thoughts & Ideas (Off Limits Rmx) 13. Zentura - Wun Wun 14. Captain Hook & Atmos - My Uzi Weights a ton Enjoy

Martin Vice, Alexander Descroix and Iboga Records bring you a smashing 25th edition of the Iboga Radio Show. This time the guys are showcasing current and future releases on Iboga records along with an interview together with Iboga Superstar Captain Hook. Tonights playlist: 1. Gaudi & Tripswitch - The Truth (Original mix) 2. Sphera - Micro Poetry (Original mix) 3. Perfect Stranger - Manifestation (Original mix) 4. MrWhat - Likes Viewz Followers (Original mix) 5. Suntree & Easy Riders - From Another Perspective (Original mix) 6. Captain Hook - Vertebra L2 (Pitchbend Remix) 7. Ace Ventura & Zen Mechanics - Come with Us (Lish Remix) 8. Flowjob - Lose Your Shoes (Original mix) 9. Zen Baboon - Love Road (Boom Mix) Cheers

The wait for your new fix of that fazed trance, psy & breaks sound is over! This mix is HUGE, loaded with new releases from lots of familiar names: Daniel Kandi, Binary Finary, Allen & Envy, Jerome Isma-Ae, Mark Sherry, Side Effects, and more -- and it's all coming at you with that Full Spectrum attitude that you'll never get anywhere else. If you missed last week's episode and you have love for filthy bass and 100bpm, check out episode #20 with Lo.F.O. on guestmix duty TRACKLIST || 1. Suntree & Sphera - Rush Hour || 2. Circuit Breakers - Commies [F.Faze Mix] || 3. Daniel Kandi & Zack Mia - Spectre (Original Mix) || 4. Stephen Kirkwood - Ghosts of the Sky || 5. Harmonic Rush & Binary Finary - Rise (Craig Connelly Remix) || 6. Allen & Envy and Katty Heath - I Wasn't The One (Iversoon and Alex Daf Dub) [F.Faze Edit] || 7. Above & Beyond - Hello (Jerome Isma-Ae Remix) [F.Faze Mix] || 8. Mark Sherry, Clare Stagg - How Can I (Nick Callaghan Remix) || 9. Side Effects - Other Dimension || 10. Paul Denton & Project 8 - Decipher || 11. Fractal - Sanity || 12. John O'Callaghan & Bryan Kearney - Exactly Never miss an episode! Subscribe to the Full Spectrum podcast, find the latest releases at https://ffaze.com