Dear community,
As the newly elected president of EarthTides Pagan Network (EPN), I am reaching out to share some thoughts about the EarthTides organization and about our beautiful community.

First of all, I hope you are all safe and well. Please heed the call for physical distancing and all the recommended precautions to slow the spread of this novel coronavirus. These are dangerous times, no doubt about it. Please take care.

Over the past year we have been working really hard to revamp EarthTides and recover as a non-profit after all our funds we stolen. There has been a lot of anxiety and sick feelings in our stomachs as we came very close to shutting it down altogether. I want to thank all who have worked so hard to help rebirth EarthTides, especially Nikki, Brent, and Marie for your consistent and persistent hard work. Also to Pat Washburn who helped get this new website off the ground. I send my heart-felt gratitude and blessing to each one of you.

For many of us older pagans here in Maine, EarthTides was key to helping us find each other, to find much needed community. EarthTides put out the first Pagan newsletters. It built the first list serve for Maine pagans to share on a new invention called the World Wide Web. It founded and continues to sponsor Beltane on the Beach, our premier pagan annual event, now in its 39th year. EPN was essential in bringing this community together. And out of all that good work a Maine Pagan community was born. My gratitude for those who founded this organization. You are the best of us and I want to give a shout out to you and just say, thank you!

As someone who has met pagans from all over the world, I can tell you there is something very special about the Maine Pagan community. It is unique and strong. People feel it when they encounter it. I think it is because we haven’t lost focus on what it at the core of our beliefs and practices, living in sacred relationship to the land, the people, and the gods. It is that focus which inspires others. They see us walk through the world as if it is enchanted and humming with sanctity – and so it is. Even though we walk on stolen ground, we walk humbly yet strong with our ancestors. We talk with the spirits of place and acknowledge those who were here before, and their decedents who are still here. We try to live with honor. We know we are part of an interconnected web of life and we behave accordingly. And this makes all the difference. People see this and know they are witnessing something special. Never doubt that.

So, EarthTides is still here. We are up and running and ready to keep doing the work it was created to do. We exist to help pagans around the state connect with each other and to share about their spirituality. To that end, we invite you to share your creativity (articles, photos, artwork), events, and other musings about your pagan life. We have been busy working on a new website and it is still a work in process, but we are sending out this invite now so you can gather your creativity. If you have projects that reflect your spiritual path, your devotion to Nature and the gods, please submit these to the site and we will post them. If you have words of wisdom to share, send an article and we will help you share it with the world. Our hope is to showcase the brilliance and wisdom in our community. EarthTides is here to help hold this community together and to shine a light from our state out to the world.

Thank you all for all that you do, for your engagement, your humbleness, your brilliance, and your generosity. Hold true to what is sacred to you and share the inspiration from that truth. We will not only survive the challenges we are facing with the Covid-19 epidemic, economic upheaval, and the threat of climate change, we will grow stronger as a people and we will thrive.

Be well and many blessings,
Kevin /|\