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<\/a>1) Maybe I\u2019m just getting old and grumpy (as opposed to young and grumpy), but I don\u2019t get the ribbon collecting thing at Pantheacon.\u00a0 They do add color and variety to the convention badges, and I picked up ribbons for the things I went to (most of them, anyway) as mementos.\u00a0 But I passed some con-goers with ribbon chains so long they looked like a UU minister\u2019s stole \u2013 they must have spent more time collecting ribbons than going to events.\u00a0 I had enough trouble walking outside or washing my hands without soaking the ribbons and I only had eight \u2013 I can\u2019t imagine wrangling a string of ribbons down to my knees.\u00a0 I heard the phrase \u201cribbon slut\u201d used more than once\u2026<\/p>\n2) Confession time for those of you who weren\u2019t at the House of Danu ritual on Sunday night:\u00a0 I choked on the Druid\u2019s Prayer<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s bad enough for a Druid to forget the Druid\u2019s Prayer, but I\u2019ve been saying that prayer EVERY DAY for the past three years, and most days for several years before that.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lesson in here for me \u2013 and maybe for others as well. \u00a0I\u2019ve said that prayer so many times it rolls off my tongue without thinking about it \u2013 it\u2019s as much a meditation as it is a prayer.\u00a0 But for this ritual, we wanted to do the prayer as a call and response.\u00a0 So instead of one line flowing right after another, it was say the line, wait for the response, say the line, wait for the response.<\/p>\n The flow was broken.\u00a0 I had to think about what came next.\u00a0 And I choked.\u00a0 I went back to the beginning, closed my eyes and started over.\u00a0 This time I repeated the line along with the responders and the flow resumed.<\/p>\n I now understand I should have practiced the prayer as a call and response.\u00a0 If I done that even a handful of times in the days leading up to the ritual it would have gone off smoothly.\u00a0 But I thought I knew it, so I spend all my time working on my other part \u2013 which went off fine, since I practiced it.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always said it\u2019s better to read well than to memorize poorly.\u00a0 Now I\u2019ll say it\u2019s better to read well than to memorize adequately.<\/p>\n Lest you think I\u2019m making excuses for the choke job described above, I\u2019m not.\u00a0 If that ritual had scripts, I would have said \u201cI say that prayer every day \u2013 I don\u2019t need a script\u201d and then done exactly the same thing.<\/p>\n I think some people\u2019s aversion to scripts is that they\u2019re understandably turned off by shuffling note cards or turning pages in a stapled script, or by ritualists who aren\u2019t familiar with their own rituals even with a script.\u00a0 But reading from a nice ritual book looks good, and it makes for a much smoother delivery.<\/p>\n 4) I was in three rituals that had the participants chanting or toning while the ritual leader recited prayers or invocations over them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never seen that before \u2013 or if I have I\u2019ve forgotten it \u2013 it was powerful.\u00a0 In the best of them, the chant was simple and repetitive, allowing for a slight shift in consciousness.\u00a0 This made the words of the leader even stronger, which helped facilitate the invocation.\u00a0 I will definitely be incorporating this into future rituals.<\/p>\n Remember:\u00a0 keep the chant simple, and the leader has to have a voice strong enough to be heard over the chanting.<\/p>\n This is an Irish-American story, and it\u2019s all of ours. Who would speak their story now that they\u2019re gone? It\u2019s ours to tell so that no one forgets what they our ancestors worked so hard to afford us. Thank you to every one of my family for these gifts of songs, tales, hopes, and possibilities. I couldn\u2019t have done this without such a grand legacy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Amelia has a beautiful voice and the accompaniment is clean and simple.\u00a0 If you like traditional Irish music, you\u2019ll probably like this.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a very good video for \u201cPaddy\u2019s Green Shamrock Shore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>3) I\u2019m a ritual geek and I enjoyed observing and participating with some first-class ritualists at Pantheacon.\u00a0 Some read from scripts and some memorized their lines.\u00a0 There is something powerful about a speech \u2013 whether a few lines of a quarter call or a lengthy recitation or a call to action \u2013 delivered without a script.\u00a0 But unless you\u2019re doing a ritual you\u2019ve done many times \u2013 or unless you\u2019ve got professional grade acting skills \u2013 very few people can do a ritual from memory and do it well.<\/p>\n<\/a>5) Coru Cathubodua member Amelia Hogan<\/a> gave me one of her new CDs:\u00a0 Transplants \u2013 From the Old World to the New<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a collection of 14 songs of Ireland (\u201cFiddler of Dooney\u201d \u201cWild Mountain Thyme\u201d) and of the Irish in America (\u201cNo Irish Need Apply\u201d \u201cLakes of Pontchartrain\u201d).\u00a0 On her website, Amelia says<\/p>\n