Pagan Pride is Alive in San Diego

Laray Gillison, more affectionately known in her community as Mama Gaia, sits on her throne holding a tiny, sleeping baby. Dressed in all black, she uses her tattooed arm to lovingly trace the triple moon pattern on the wooden box by her side and speaks to passers-by openly, patiently answering extensive questions regarding her spirituality while displaying her handmade bath and body products. She’s here for the San Diego Pagan Pride Network’s first ever Pagan pride psychic fair, a welcoming environment for pagans, witches, and spiritual enthusiasts alike.

The event took place in the home of Lora Keller, Vice President of the network, this past Saturday. It included a wide array of vendors, tarot card readers, and energy workers in an attempt to raise funds for Pagan Pride day, a larger and more elaborate pride festival in the fall, which has been put on by San Diego Pagan Pride each year since 2003.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Mechling

With a newly elected board, SD Pagan Pride is working to facilitate more social events in hopes that these will foster pride in Pagan Identity throughout San Diego county and just “show that we’re real people,” Keller explained. Keller, who is also a Shamanic high priestess, stresses that the non-profit organization is open to all who identify with Pagan or Neo-Pagan traditions, regardless of denomination. The psychic fair was one of many ideas Keller and the new board had been brewing, in hopes of attracting like-minded people and bringing them to a place where they can openly share their beliefs. “We’re bringing people together to celebrate their uniqueness, but also their likeness,” she smiled.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Mechling

Though there was a constant stream of colorful new characters throughout the 7-hour event, there were thankfully no more than 15 people in the cramped space at a time. The festival was originally envisioned to be outdoors, but the rain forced the board to think quickly and relocate to Keller’s modest home. Her living room space had been transformed into a makeshift vendor fair, displaying folding tables lined with jewelry, crystals, and cauldrons. Vendors included Well and Spindle, Broomsticks, and Kyrie’s Mystic Creations, among others. Triple Moon Creations, which is curated by Gillison, has also gained traction online recently, and boasts a wide variety of products. Aside from facial scrubs and bath salts, Gillison’s display included ritual supplies and witches protection balls, which are hung in front windows to guard against evil.

A wall dotted with a multitude of diverse crosses created an appropriate spiritual setting for Keller’s front room, which exhibited several dark privacy screens behind which community members were conducting spiritual readings. Seated at small tables covered with colorful cloth, crystals, pentacles, and candles, readers encouraged attendees to participate not only in more traditional tarot and oracle card readings, but also in readings of keys and runes, which are items scattered on the table. Meaning is derived from the ways the keys face or the symbols on the runes are facing. This meaning is not set, however, but is simply a “forecast” or a way to tell “what the universe is saying,” explained Steve, a tarot reader who performs readings and gives kinesthesiology treatments in a shop in La Mesa.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Mechling

Although the readings were free, hosts encouraged “love donations” from participants to reach their eventual goal of raising enough to host Pagan Pride Day in the fall. This more lavish festival will celebrate autumn harvest, a Pagan holiday which pays homage the earth and its bountiful resources. Through this event, the organization will also give back to the community by collecting donations for charities, such as the Food Bank and Project Wildlife. “Talking to the pagans gave me an appreciation for how they live and how much they care about their surroundings,” said Chula Vista resident, Miguel Martinez, “and the festival itself was an eye opening experience.”

Attendees may not have expected the unfortunate weather that day, but ultimately the Pagan Pride Psychic fair managed to encapsulate everything that Pagan Pride stands for by creating a “welcoming environment to all who [came] in peace,” as their mission statement proudly declares.