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Raven Moon

"This is my 23rd year at the Saturday Market," says Raven Moon, purveyor of spirit rattles, shakers, masks, and fantasy animals, hand-made of papier-maché and gemstones. "I love it. Life is great!" A sociology grad of Arizona State, Moon was a letter carrier in Corvallis and the single dad of two young daughters in 1983, when he met spiritualist and Tarot reader Yana Breeze, who encouraged him to change his line of work and his name. "At first I was thinking, 'Moon Raven,'" he says. The pair got started in crafts by making "gemulets" (gemstone amulets) to sell at the market. "I wanted to make my own rattle for a ritual with Yana," Moon recalls. "I quickly found my artistic medium. I loved it and others liked it too." Moon and Breeze moved to Eugene and got married in 1993, 10 years to the day from when they met. For the past 10 years, Moon has transported his market booth and merchandise to the park blocks in a garden cart strapped to his recumbent bike. He and Breeze gave up their car altogether in 2000, when they noticed that their pre-Y2K fill-up had lasted into summer.

happening people

photograph and story by Paul Neevel

Eugene Weekly / 31 July 2008

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