Elder Faiths Blog

Kara Nilson has been an SEF member since 2003, and has been a co-leader and leader of the Pagan Family Connection since 2007. In response to the needs of the pre-teens in the PFC, she started the Tween and Teen Esbat Group that meets once a month at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Hudson, MA.

Discovering the craft in 1986, Kara was unable to find any resources or events friendly to young teenagers. She kept her solitary practice until discovering the SEF in 2003, then dedicating to Mnemosyne’s Well of the Spawn Far tradition in 2006. In 2010 she dedicated to Llwyn Bedw Arian coven. Kara has written and co-faciliated public rituals for adults at Taproot, in Grafton and Hopkinton and for Pagan families in Grafton since 2006.

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Karen Selznick has been an SEF member since 2003. She joined the Board in February of 2012. In addition to being the official photographer for the SEF she worked with Mnemosyne’s Well to co-facilitate public rituals for adults at Taproot and has also held supporting roles in numerous rituals at the Barn in Grafton and the Hopkinton YMCA Camp.

Karen began her practice and first dedicated to Dion Tir in Orlando, Florida in 1996. After moving back to Massachusetts in 2002, she began attending open SEF events She is presently a member of the coven Salacia.

Born in Brooklyn NY, Karen relocated to Massachusetts at age 5. After 18 years in the Northeast, she decided a change was in order, and moved to sunny Florida. Having had enough sun, and missing her family, she came back to Massachusetts in 2002. She now resides in Franklin with her husband Shawn and teenage daughter Chloe; a cat named Homer; a bird named Mousse; and two guinea pigs named Flubber and Weebo.

She is a Summa Cum Laude Graduate of Becker College holding a Bachelors Degree in Business Management. Karen is currently working as a cosmetologist in Franklin, MA.

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Shawn is one of the founding board members and current President of the SEF. He has written many of its rituals and led some of its retreats, including Dancing the Stang, the Journey through the Egyptian Underworld, and the Isis Intensive. He founded Team Wheels of Fortune and is chair of the End of Life Committee.

Shawn was initiated into the Coven Chthonioi and the Order of Ganymede in the 1983-4, co-founded Symbios coven in 1987 and Kouretes coven in 2009. He has worked with several pagan organizations in varied capacities, including the EarthSpirit community and Covenant of the Goddess. He became a Freemason in 1991 and master of Satucket Lodge in 2001, then serving as secretary for 11 years.

His interests include the reconstruction of ancient Egyptian temple rites and communal rituals of ancient and modern cultures. He also crafts magical tools and meditational foci, blending myth, symbol, and material correspondences.

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