‘I do not have words’: Southern Illinois pagans experience eclipse By Francois Gatimu August 21, 2017
Pagans of southern Illinois celebrate the new year, remember lost loved ones By Marnie Leonard October 30, 2016
![Emmalie Hall-Skank, a senior from Streamwood studying interior design, gazes up from inside a bamboo forest Sunday, March 5, 2017, during an afternoon hike with members of the Southern Illinois Pagan Alliance at the Marberry Arboretum off Pleasant Hill Road in Carbondale. The group hike was organized by Tara Nelson, founder of SIPA and a 2002 SIU graduate. "Because [Paganism] is a nature-based spiritual practice, for us, this is church," said Nelsen. "Being able to watch this change of the seasons and recognize that this so much a part of human existence, like seriously, this is church. For us, being out in nature is more sacred than any building ever could be." Although this was SIPA's first group hike of 2017, Nelson said she plans to facilitate more group activities in the coming months.](https://dailyegyptian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/030517_SIPA_WEB_MT-900x601.jpg)
