Happily Heathen: Heathen Events At PantheaCon 2017

Convention season has started! The first one up is PantheaCon, as usual. If you haven’t heard of PantheaCon (PCon), it’s the largest international indoor pan-Pagan convention in the world, held every February in San Jose, CA. PCon always hosts a number of Heathen-related classes, rituals, and workshops. (There are also a good-sized Heathen contingent among the Con staff, as well.) I don’t know the exact numbers of attendees, but having been to both, I can say that it “feels” to be about 3-4 times larger than Convocation, which is another great indoor pan-Pagan convention that happens the following weekend in Detroit.

Here’s a rundown of most of the hospitality suites, rituals, classes, and discussions that will be at PCon this year, listed in chronological order.

Rituals:

Furious Revels (5pm Friday)—A noisy romp through the hotel to clear out harmful spirits, led by River Devora and Strong Roots and Wide Branches
Oracular Seidh (1:30pm Sunday)—Open seidh divination, led by Diana Paxon and Seidhjallr
Generations Blot (3:30pm Sunday)—A family-friend blot in honor of our gods, heroes, and ancestors, led by Hrafn Skjold Kindred
Waking Freyr (7pm Sunday)—A trance devotional for Freyr and Freya, led by the Vanic Conspiracy

Classes and Discussions:

Talk with Odin at the Hearth (7:00pm Friday)—A interactive discussion with Odin, led by Dave Shultz
Next Generation Heathen Life and Lore (11:00am Saturday) —for Heathen kids and parents! Led by Angela Carlson and Charles Perry
Heathen Free Assembly (1:30pm Saturday)—Open forum discussion for all Heathens, facilitated by Jamie Morgan, PantheaCon coordinator

Hospitality suites:

Inclusive Heathenry Suite (Rm 257)—Mead and scotch tastings; blóts for various Heathen deities; bindrune workshop; and more.
Strong Roots and Wide Branches Polytheist Suite (Rm 255)—Public shrines for Norse, Germanic, and Greek Gods; Rituals for the Vanir, the Matronae, and Dionysus and Ariadne; Intro to the Norse Gods class; and other classes.
ADF Hospitality Suite (Rm 253)—ADF’s schedule is unknown currently, but ADF has a strong Heathen contingent among its membership. Their suite is always a friendly place for Heathens to stop by, despite many long years of (mostly friendly) cattle raiding with the neighboring Heathen suite.

There are also a few classes and workshops on the runes, as well as one on Baltic Heathenry. Even if you can’t attend PantheaCon, it’s always interesting to check out what is being offered each year, and by who. Oftentimes, the presenters have websites or blogs that are linked in their biographies.

I’ve been attending PCon for sixteen years, and I’ve been presenting at PCOn in one way or another for a good eight or nine of those years. This year, instead of presenting anything on the main program, I’m helping to run and organize the Strong Roots and Wide Branches Polytheist Hospitality Suite. This suite is a labor of love, as it’s something I have been hoping to put together for a long time: a hotel room devoted to shrine space for a deities from a variety of pantheons, open to the con-going public. (And yes, it will have a HUGE Heathen presence, both Continental and Scandinavian.) Hope to see some of your there!