Spirituality in the North Woods

I had the pleasure of going to a new friend’s cabin in the boundary waters canoe area, the north woods of Minnesota last weekend. This in and of itself is a grand adventure, a vacation complete with lake, canoe, sauna, fire and good friends. But the friends weren’t common, they were quite unique. This excursion was a meeting of the minds and the sharing of souls. Drew Jacob, a Celtic Polytheist priest, B. T. Newberg a Humanist Pagan (is priest or shaman a better description) and myself, Oungan of Vodou.

We not just spoke to one another around the campfire, we recorded it for all to hear. Come experience the north woods, the crackling of the fire, the canopy of stars and the three of us, talking religion and spirituality, man to man. All within the framework of what it is to experience, what our encounters of nature are.

B. T. Newberg’s blog Humanistic Paganism is the sponsor of this event. We’re releasing it as five separate segments all off the Humanistic Paganism site. The first one is Encounters in nature, part 1: Sharing of Paths. The second is Encounters in nature, part 2: Three eyes on nature. The third is Encounters in nature, part 3: Story Time. The forth is Encounters in nature, part 4: Going wild. The fifth and last is Encounters in nature, part 5: Bringing it home. If you have trouble with the website’s audio broadcast, you can listen to the iTunes podcast and get them for your iPod/iPhone/iPad. We’re going to release an eBook soon with a transcript of all the stories, as well as some excerpts from each of our blogs and further explanations of each of our religious traditions. I hope you enjoy, we had a lot of fun.

Photo © 2011 B. T. Newberg From Left: B. T. Newberg, Urban Haas and Drew Jacob

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