At the June meeting of the Heartland Spiritual Alliance, two of my crew on the Sacred Experience Committee put their hats in for the position. Exhausted by my work over the last two years, I was relieved to see such enthusiasm for leadership within the committee. At the June meeting, this past Sunday, my successor was elected, and I submitted this final report.
[Satyr Magos] Final Sacred Experience Report
When I joined the Sacred Experience Committee in 2014, I was signing up to work committee head with whom I had had loud and public disagreements over the nature and ethics of public ritual. At the end of the year, he nominated me to succeed him. For the two years, now, that I have run the committee, and the prior year in which I worked the ritual crew under Jason Truman, I have striven to create public rituals which have participants rather than an audience and which are both magically effective and as safe as effective ritual can possibly be. I believe, overall, that I have been successful in my goals.
In that time, I have changed the culture of the Sacred Experience Committee Ritual Crew from one where an inner circle writes rituals that they recruit others to perform to one where all of the ritual facilitators are actively involved in the design process. In 2014/15, there were four of us on the Ritual Crew. This year there were nine. In the years prior to my joining, there had only been two main rituals; this year there were five. When I took over the committee in 2015, I inherited two totes worth of costumes, ritual bling, and craft supplies; I leave the committee now with six totes and a bit of overflow.
I speak chiefly of the Ritual Crew, because the Vision Quest and Sweat Lodge both came with existing crews and leaders accustomed to operating independently. Out of respect for their bodies of work, and in the interests of the festival and the organization, I permitted them that autonomy without question. I wish, now, that I had more deeply involved myself in those aspects of my committee.
I am proud of the crew I have built, the work we have done, and the prestige we have restored to the public rituals at the Heartland Pagan Festival. The two people who ran for the position today have both been with me to the beginning, and are excellent ritualists who would have been excellent leaders of this committee going forward.
Congratulations to Lorelei. I wish her the best of luck, and hope that she finds the garden I left her well-tended. I look forward to continuing to work with the committee, and making the Heartland Pagan Festival a magickal and ecstatic experience for our attendees.
I am grateful for the opportunities I have had over the last two years. I am proud of the ritual arcs we executed. I am proud of the work we have done in the community. I am honored to have served, and look forward to continuing to work with the Sacred Experience Committee and he Heartland Spiritual Alliance in the coming years, in less demanding capacities.
I am also grateful for this opportunity to step back, to internalize the lessons I have learned in my two years of leadership, and to refocus on my art.