From things I’ve read, some of their groups actually made a major nuisance of themselves locally, martyring themselves right and left.

I live in what realtors call a “hidden neighborhood” – it’s off the Interstate but you don’t really notice its there because it’s hidden mostly by businesses. My yard is deep and until this year had forest on one side (my neighbor bot that lot and plowed the trees under with a bulldozer, which caused me nearly physical pain). But it still gives the sense of remoteness (I’ve posted photos on my blog now and then).

I’m not in the country but I feel like I am. I have a contact with the earth in a way I had not enjoyed in years. But geographically speaking, where I live now has not affected me like growing up in Minnesota did, to the extent that it shaped who I am.

What it does allow me to do has more to do with the form taken by cultic acts – I can leave out offerings to the land wights and because I can have small fires I can honor the gods out of doors, like many of our ancestors did. That is something I could not do in Minnesota with the outdoor burning ban in the area I lived. I’m guessing it is something that would be denied me if I lived in California as well.

I suppose in the end we all have to try to find ways to express ourselves and we don’t all have the same opportunities. I’ve run the gamut over the years and I cannot think of a better place on the one hand, and a worse on the other. I’ve gotten hate mail, I’ve been locally infamous for a newspaper column I wrote in answer to a couple of priests arguing about the souls of the unsaved.

http://snoozepossum.blogspot.com/