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About PagansPath.com About Our Site
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- Humble Beginnings
- Pagan's
Path started on October 2nd, 1996, as a small education website
hosted on a personal AOL screen-name/website. It was a modest
attempt to share information on commonly asked questions in AOL
chat rooms. It was initially part of what my ex-husband and I
called the SpringIce Education Network. The name was merely a
representation of our union and commitment to the site; I as
Spring and he as Ice. After 2 years of working on the initial
articles; it was evident this was a lone commitment on my part.
And the "SpringIce" was dropped and replaced with my
name only. Thus the SpringIce Spiritual Network was the humble
beginnings of what has become SpringWolf's PagansPath.com.
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- As the site expanded to include more education information
than just what was being asked about in chat rooms, the demand
for this information also expanded. One of the biggest requirements
I had for the articles on the site; was to provide the resources
used to write the articles. To give readers the ability to look
up this information and expand their knowledge beyond my words
on the page. It was also my way of showing this information wasn't
just from some crazy woman's head.
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- As more articles were rolled out in this context, visitors
increased their requests for more information and the popularity
of the site grew as those requests were met. This expansion gave
rise to an increased need for technical space and features that
AOL simply could not handle.
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- PagansPath.com Officially Rolls Out
- In March 1999 the official PagansPath.com domain was purchased
and the site was officially rolled out on Ostara of that year.
In February 2001 the PagansPath.net and PagansPath.org domains
were purchased to eliminate some issues other sites were having
with copycats and negative sites that were an attack on pagan
beliefs and practices. Today, the .org and .net domains are parked
on PagansPath.com.
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- A guest book
was added in 2001. To be honest because other sites I visited
at the time had one as well. It's sometimes nice to see what
people have to say. Through comments, questions and suggestions
it gave me ideas for topics and expansion of information.
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- That idea gave rise to a corresponding message board. A place where the topics listed
on PagansPath.com could be discussed in further detail and through
interaction with visitors and myself; as well as, between visitors.
The Pagan's Path Message Board was established during the Mid-Summer
festival on June 21, 2000.
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- PagansPath.com In 2006
- I'm always amazed at the popularity of PagansPath.com. It
has grown into something I never thought possible. The initial
site had a total of 62,000+ visits on AOL. Through the initial
roll out to August 2003, that number rose to 178,000+. At the
time of this article (March 2009), our site statistics record
an average of over 100 visitations a day. The average for a month
exceeds 3,600; with an increase during some of the more popular
Sabbats, such as Samhain and Yule.
The site is accessed from all over the world. The guestbook has
seen signatures from all over the United States, Canada and Mexico.
As well as Australia, New Zealand, Africa, all over Europe and
even from the Middle East.
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- The biggest thrill for me however has been the personal contacts
through the message board and especially through the emails I
receive from the site. The site visits and emails come from people
from all walks of life. Not just pagans. I'm often amazed at
how many Christian and Jewish Ministers email me asking questions.
Often times our discussions move into detailed correspondences
about our beliefs and comparisons of how alike we all really
are.
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- PagansPath.com Sponsor's Store
- The
Pagan's Path Gift Store
- As with most things in 2006, the cost of keeping PagansPath.com
has increased. As you can probably imagine, it takes a great
deal of time, effort and expense to keep PagansPath.com up and
running. Between the domain name registration, hosting services,
and message board services the internet expenses are just part
of the financial commitments. There's also lectures for adult
groups and educational programs for children and community events.
Book donations to libraries and soldiers serving over seas. Along
with many other life changing events such as burials, weddings
and paganings.
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- Through the years I've always received requests for PagansPath.com
materials. Things like t-shirts; cups and so on where people
could show off their support and pride at being pagan. I never
gave these ideas much thought until 2006 when financial support
for these efforts increased. At the encouragement of family and
friends I sat down and started to think. Then one day The GreatSpirits
dropped a gem in my lap. Songwynde, a regular on the PagansPath.com
message board dropped a little suggestion about an online retail
service. After a little research, a lot of thinking, designing,
tossing out and re-creating graphics and images; the PagansPath.com
sponsors store was born on April 1, 2006. Yeah..what better day
than April Fool's day.
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- Each purchase helps support the continuing mission to Spread
Tolerance Through Education. Each item purchased provides a contribution
to PagansPath.com and helps cover the internet expenses and services
associated with these efforts. From T-shirts for children and
adults, cups and mugs, mouse pads and magikal Grimoires; these
products sponsor PagansPath.com.
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- PagansPath.com Moves Forward
- There are always a lot of plans in the works for expansion.
Adding articles on the site, expanding services, adding lectures
and classes and even building a community center. I'm a strong
believer that everything happens in it's right time and place.
Time and the blessings of The GreatSpirits will bring these ideas
into reality.
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- In late 2007 the planning for Spring's Haven, LLC began. The legal filings
were submitted to Federal and State organizations in March, 2008.
The company was registered as a Limited Liability Corporation
(LLC) on March 21, 2008 in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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- Spring's Haven is first and foremost a spiritual center for
education. It is focused on understanding spirituality to bring
about tolerance and peace. Our goal is to facilitate holistic
spiritual awareness, enlightenment, wellness and self empowerment
through education and celebration.
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- The Center is a non-member organization. Individuals participate
because they want to share in hope, community and friendship
with other spiritual beings. We offer worship services, adult
education classes in spiritual philosophy and practice, healthy
living, Reiki healing, leadership training and a thriving spiritual
community. The Center also offers services in spiritual healing,
divination and spiritual direction and counseling.
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- PagansPath.com 11th Birthday
- On the 11th birthday of PagansPath.com, it's interesting
to look back over the growth and changes of the site. Today on
our birthday the site claims 405,380 visitors and climbing. 90
people per day visit the site from places like Australia, New
Zealand, Africa, India, all over Europe and even from the Middle
East.
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- In 2009 the site went social and joined Facebook and Twitter
through my business site Spring's Haven. The popularity was more
than I expected and requests came for me to join the social networking
in person. So I went social in January 2010.
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- With the increased popularity in these social networking
sites, the message board for PagansPath.com has slowly come to
a crawl. Growth brings about change and sometimes old things
slowly fade. But the site continues, new articles are added and
the emails, tweets and Facebook contacts keep coming.
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- You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook for daily messages,
announcements, schedules,or just to chat. Or follow SpringsHaven
for a Daily Tarot Meditation Card drawing & corresponding
message. You can even look back over our daily drawing archive.
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