On May 12, 2012, the Pagan Alliance will be hosting the 11^th Annual Pagan Festival in Berkeley, California. This years theme is Paradigm Shift and will be held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park located at 2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The 2012 Keeper of the Light will be T. Thorn Coyle. This event is packed full of great people, activities, parade floats and shopping.

In honor of the outgoing 2011 Keeper of the Light, Yeshe Rabbit, Pagan Newswire Bay Area asked Yeshe Rabbit a couple of questions about her time in this role.

What does being keeper of the light for the past year meant to you?

Being the Pagan Alliance’s Keeper of the Light is an honor and a responsibility. It says, to me, “Good job on all you have done. The work does not end. Now go do more.” I don’t carry that work alone. When I was named KOL last May, I accepted the role on behalf of all of us: we all hold a special light within, and I believe it is crucial for each of us to shine that light forth and lead by example with our reverence, mirth, joy, ethics, and personal responsibility.

How do you think continuing this new tradition in the Bay Area of having a Keeper of the Light enhances the local Pagan community?

For the past decade, the Pagan Alliance has steadily provided a stream of amazing Festivals and events, and they do all of it on a shoestring budget with a small, loyal cadre of volunteers. That impresses me. Local voluntarism impresses me. Dedication and clarity of purpose impress me. I am the tenth annual Keeper of the Light. I feel that this honor reflects the same commitment to a labor of love that has shaped the organization that bestows it. The Keeper of the Light award is a great way for the Pagan Alliance to both acknowledge the dedicated service and leadership of a representative number of people, while inspiring everyone to embody service and leadership in their own ways. The more we all choose to say, “Yes,” to the call to serve at whatever level we are able, the stronger the local and national pagan community grows.

The upcoming year’s theme is Paradigm shift, what shift have you experienced this last year in our community?

I have seen many, many shifts in the past year: personally, in the pagan community, and in the wider world as well. I think anyone who is psychically paying attention feels these shifts as well, so I find the theme timely and thought-provoking. I believe that the personal shift IS the collective shift. Each of our personal evolutions collectively informs the revolution of consciousness that is brewing right now. For me, that has translated in shedding old stories and patterns about who I am and how I operate in the world. I have given myself permission to step away from an adherence to “tradition” in favor of embracing the perfection of the emerging Now. I have shifted into speaking up and speaking out rather than complying in things I find objectionable. I am grateful for those shifts. I trust that others are finding their own shifts to be equally powerful. And may these individual shifts continue and combine to help shape a better future for us all.

Crystal Blanton reporting, Pagan Newswire Collective Bay Area