![\"Me](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/212\/2017\/02\/IMG_8301.jpg\")
<\/a>My travels first took me to ConVocation in Detroit, one of America\u2019s biggest (about 1000 folks), best, and least talked about festivals. The curious silence that often greets ConVocation might be due to its location, or perhaps because no one leaves it upset. I don\u2019t really know, but I\u2019ve been going to \u201cCon\u201d for almost fifteen years now and they always make my contributions feel welcome and appreciated. <\/p>\n
I did two workshops that weren\u2019t terrible, but they were probably a bit dry. Talking about books isn\u2019t all that sexy, and depending on one\u2019s level of knowledge, not always terribly informative. It\u2019s hard to condense 40,000 years of history into a one hour talk, so if people are really interested in the topic they probably leave disappointed because I don\u2019t spend thirty minutes talking about Agrippa or whatever. <\/p>\n If you were wondering about why this post is called Into and Around the Witch Cult<\/em>, it\u2019s because I led a ritual there called A Ritual From the Witch-Cult, inspired by the writings of Margaret Murray in her (1921) book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe<\/em>. Using Murray as a ritual source is kind of a challenge because her witches only really did five things: <\/p>\n -feast (I\u2019m not catering a ritual for 80 people) My ritual was limited to the final two things of course. <\/p>\n A Murray ritual is difficult for other reasons. There are no circles or quarters (though apparently we built one anyways), and it\u2019s Goddess\/goddesses free. The only deity in attendance was Old Hornie<\/em> in the form of the Grand Magister (me). Murray\u2019s ritual leaders \u201cdrew down\u201d the God of the Witches, so that\u2019s what we did. What surprised me the most about that drawing down was how political it got. The Horned God is worried about his children, and wants us to protect one another, and especially look out for the most vulnerable of us. <\/p>\n I had some wonderful help with the ritual too, most notably Devin Hunter<\/a> (who was actually supposed to be on the ritual\u2019s marquee), Laura Tempest Zakroff<\/a>, and the greatest ritual waiter of all time Storm Faerywolf<\/a>. Most of the ritual was a one-man-goat-show but their presences propped me up, stopped Old Hornie from getting too lecherous, and just generally kept the gears of the whole enterprise running smoothly. Much thanks my friends. <\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/storm_faerywolf\/status\/835644442472251393<\/p>\n The last few years have found me spending a lot of time ruminating on the nature of Wicca and its evolution. I\u2019m not ready to write about those ideas yet, but I have been talking about them in public. Since no one has thrown any tomatoes at me during these talks, it seems as if some people might actually agree with me. What I do as one of the Wica is not really the same thing I do as a Wiccan, and it\u2019s because one has a whole bunch of influences the other one does not. More to come when I get to sit down at home and actual spend some real time writing. <\/p>\n I was pleasantly surprised that John Michael Greer<\/a> seemed to know who I was when I met him on Saturday night at ConVocation. I\u2019m of the opinion that there\u2019s no reason to know who I am, especially when you are John Michael Greer, but we had a nice chat about fraternal orders and their impact on Paganism and beyond. I also got to share a drink or two with Kerr Cuhalain<\/a>, whose book Wiccan Warrior<\/em> was a favorite many years ago. I remain a very blessed and lucky boy. <\/p>\n If you are wondering why I\u2019m writing this in Virginia Beach instead of Silicon Valley, that\u2019s because I visited the offices of BN Media this past afternoon. (BN Media is the parent company of Patheos, so in other words I visited with my bosses.) What I encountered there reminded me more of a Silicon Valley than anything else. I certainly didn\u2019t feel as if there was any sort of political or religious agenda being expressed. Bonus, all of my President Trump jokes were well received. <\/p>\n What did we chat about? Generally our talk revolved around one thing: how to make Patheos Pagan better. I\u2019m extremely proud of what we\u2019ve built here, with special thanks to all the folks who have written here over the years past and present. We want the site to look better, for the pages to load faster, for the ad experience to improve, and to just better serve the people who read our stuff here. I thought it was a productive few hours, and while there won\u2019t be any immediate changes, there are going to be some very beneficial down the road. <\/p>\n Everyone I spoke with was extremely gracious, but also curious about our community. \u201cDo you have any rules as a Pagan?\u201d \u201cWhy did you choose to be a Pagan?\u201d (Especially after admitting my former Republican-President-of-the-church-youth-group days!) I always enjoy answering those things because I\u2019m generally very proud of my community. Over the last few years I\u2019ve been proud of how we\u2019ve confronted issues like racism and trans-rights. We don\u2019t all always \u201cget it right\u201d but I think the majority of our community actively tries to do good, and that\u2019s a good start. <\/p>\n<\/a>
\n-orgy together (no festival is going to let me do this)
\n-sacrifice people-especially babies (that\u2019s clearly out)
\n-get initiated (and this sometimes involved kissing the Grand Magister or signing a book)
\n-dance, and they did it according to Murray by placing their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>