Our first Faith At The Table event on February 19 was a great example of good food and good conversation. Rev. Angie Buchanan spoke about her upbringing as a second-generation pagan and her work as a minister for her community, Earth Traditions, which follows the practices of the ancient Northern European nature-based religions, celebrating solstices, equinoxes, and cycles of birth, coming of age and death of the Earth and Humankind.
For those who attended, it was a rare opportunity to talk at length, face-to-face with someone practices her particular version of Pagan spirituality daily, serves as a spiritual mentor for others in her community, and has answered almost every question that people are likely to ask. No, they don’t worship the Devil. They venerate their ancestors and see the Divine Masculine and Feminine in all living things. Yes, they do sacrifice animals–meaning that Pagan families go to the farm to meet the animals and say a blessing of thanks over the animals for the food that they will later provide. Marriage may be a forever commitment between two people, or it may be a contract for a year and a day, called hand-fasting, after which the parties may decide to stay together or go their separate ways. Those are just a few of the things we learned during our time together.
Faith At The Table events are being scheduled all over the greater LA area. Click here to see the schedule of upcoming events. And if your house of worship would like to host a Faith At The Table event for young adults in your area, contact Lisa Patriquin, Program Director for Youth and Young Adults at lisapatriquin@theguibordcenter.org