Free Spirit Gathering 2026 - 40th year

Chair yoga focuses on achieving proper alignment and refining your technique to boost fitness and balance. Through slower movements and an emphasis on quality over quantity, it combines asanas (poses) and pranayama (breath) to build strength, stamina, and flexibility. No prior knowledge is needed to perform these exercises, but it would be helpful to bring your own belt or strap to assist you to do some positions.

Some things are just better healed through pain rather than a therapy session. I would like to share the knowledge of trauma reclamation with others in order to possibly help people find peace in this painful world.

Grief. Rage. Silence. These emotional states are often feared—but in the dark, they become powerful messengers. This deeply embodied workshop offers a space to express, witness, and transform emotional intensity through gentle movement, breathwork, sound, and creative ritual. Participants will explore the spectrum of emotion and release what no longer serves through embodied expression and creativity. A grounding meditation will be offered in this sacred container, providing space for somatic movement & breathwork. Followed by space holding with channeled sound immersion for personal silent or vocal expression of rage and grief. Finally, participants will be invited to particpate in collaborative painting or personal mark-making ritual for symbolic release.

Haven Healing Circle was part of the Haven Community run by Elspeth and Nybor and a regular feature at FSG for a number of years until health issues forced them to stop. We asked their permission to bring it back to FSG because FSG is so much about community and this ritual is community helping heal community. Please join us if you feel a need for healing, to help heal others or simply to share caring with community, clan/tribe.

In following with the theme of this year's festival, The Universal Temple of Spirits presents a service for the Spirits of Unity in the Storm.  We will honor our Spirits with drumming, dance, song, and art. The service will begins with a sung litany prayer to set the space.  All are welcome to join in with this.  And then the drums start. The singing and dancing continues throughout, and we call our Spirits into ourselves to share our celebration.
 This is an open circle; you may join late or leave early (although you'll probably miss some good stuff if you do). This is a Pantheistic working, so we will honor Spirits from around the globe and sing in their native languages when possible. Please note that this is not an open drum circle; it is a possession-based working. 
We will be limiting the number of Spirits to 15 for the "head table".  
The more active your participation, the more exciting the service, so... 
Please bring:
 
 Your Spirit of Unity in the Storm [Who would you call when in the storm?...]
 A song for them, if you have one
 A design for them, as we will all be drawing for our individual Spirits.
 Altar objects for your Spirit, if you have them
 You may wish to dress in the colors of the Spirit you'll be honoring.  Please come with bits covered.
Donations of food, drink, or money for supplies are appreciated, but not mandatory.
 
 The Universal Temple of Spirits is a celebratory group practicing in the Global Spirits tradition. The celebrations welcome all Spirits from around the globe in love. Rituals are theme-based, rather than pantheon-based, and incorporate what we have in common as humans: shared food, dance, song, drumming, art, and possession trance. Global Spirits is a harm-none tradition.  No one is required to partake of alcohol.  Our website is www.globalspirits.org

This Circle has become a mainstay at FSG for over a decade and these challenges continue to haunt so many of us in our community, and in the mundane world. I am honored to hold space for anyone who is struggling with a Loss or a Trauma that is heavy on your heart. Every Trauma also carries some element of loss, and sacred space is a compassionate place to tend to your needs.
 
As we have every year, we will be building an altar to honor The Mighty Dead, and send them our love. These can be members of the FSG community (please message me if you would like someone honored from our tribe), Elders who shaped your Path and you admired, any family, friends, teachers or creatures who have crossed beyond the veil. Bring pictures or any mementos you see fit, we will add them to the Altar. Then we will make a Circle and send them intentions. We will also have call-outs to those we think of extemporaneously.
 
This is both a remembrance and a chance for healing advice. If anyone is having challenges or triggers regarding a loss or a trauma, we can discuss those, too. Both Pagan and Mundane support will be discussed, and my grief book will also be available for purchase. Loss changes you – and Free Spirit is an excellent occasion to create new tools to help you adjust to those changes.
 
 
This class may be intense for kids – use your discretion…..

Workshop will focus on teaching five methods of Sigil creation, charging, and application. IT will cover sigil enhancement and practical applications to daily life and advance practice. Bind Rune Creation Workshop will cover the unique practice of bind rune creation, the difference of bind runes from other similar practices, and numerology can be integrated to enhance bind runes.

In the Storm we gather our friends and Spirits close.  In the Storm we sing along with the wind and the rain.  This workshop is a song learn and a song share for times of turbulence.  Whether you murmur softly as the clouds dance or yodel the currents over the valleys, we'll ride it out with our voices and find some Spirits along the way.  Some handouts available