Under the Ancient Oaks: A Season of Contemplation

The mainstream holidays are over and we’ve gone back to work or school or whatever routine we have for most of the year. Perhaps you work in retail or hospitality and your busy season is finally over. Regardless of what you do, in the Northern Hemisphere January has the coldest weather, and while travel is far safer and more certain than it was for our ancestors, this is the one time of year when we feel the urge to stay inside in front of the fire – or the gas furnace.

This makes January and the season leading up to Imbolc the perfect time for contemplation.

February 9 through 11 I’ll be at the ADF Texas Imbolc Retreat at the U Bar U retreat center in Mountain Home, Texas. It’s suitable for Pagans and polytheists of all varieties, and it’s drivable from almost any place in Texas. I’ll be speaking on “Building Alliances Across Our Many Communities.” This is my Pantheacon presentation. I get to do my first public presentation in front of a small friendly audience, and those who are there get to hear it a week before everyone else.

The next weekend I’ll be at Pantheacon in San Jose, California, the largest indoor Pagan gathering in the world. I’ll be speaking on “Building Alliances Across Our Many Communities” on Saturday at 11:00 AM in the Carmel/ Monterey Room.

On Sunday at 1:30 PM I’ll be speaking on “The Shredded Veil” in the OBOD hospitality suite. This will be an opportunity to share our thoughts on the increase in Otherworldly experiences many of have noticed over the past few years, and to talk about what they might mean.

I’ll also be doing a presentation in the ADF hospitality suite – more details on that once it’s finalized.

April 20 through 22 I’ll be one of the featured guests at the 2018 CUUPS Convocation. If you’re a UU Pagan and you have the ability to travel, I strongly encourage you to support the only national gathering for CUUPS. And if you’re going, I encourage you to register early. Local CUUPS members had to deal with Hurricane Irma and its aftermath instead of planning and promoting Convo – they’re getting a late start. But all is well and back on schedule and they could use the early commitments.

And I’ll be one of the featured guests at Mystic South, July 13 through 15 in Atlanta. More on that in the coming months.