There were quite a few rituals at PantheaCon and unfortunately I couldn’t make them all. I was determined that the rituals I did attend wouldn’t be Wiccan so I could experience the rites of other Pagan religions. Here are my thoughts on the three rituals I was able to participate in over this hectic weekend. A Ritual for Our Neopagan Ancestors facilitated by the ADF As so many of our elders have recently passed I really wanted to participate in... Read more
I’m sitting in the lobby of the Doubletree Hilton in San Jose watching folks who are leaving early, sipping coffee and trying to figure out how to convey this experience to you before I dash off to lurk in the back of Gus DiZerega’s healing workshop. PantheaCon is a different sort of Pagan event. While my experience at Pagan Spirit Gathering was one of diverse people creating common community, PantheaCon is a celebration Pagan diversity, and it’s an important Pagan... Read more
Language is a major part of what and who we are, so much so that pointing it out seems a bit too obvious almost as if one were pointing at the sun and proclaiming, “Warm.” We generally think in the language we were born to and it ingrains itself into us. Language itself is a bit more than a mere tool of communication, the nuances of the individual languages itself tells us things not otherwise intended. A quick example of... Read more
Phew! Myself and other PNC members had some trouble with our flights but everyone is finally trickling in. I’ve peeked around corners, hugged some folks and finally got into the room to freshen up (aka smell less bad and look less crumpled) and get on the interwebs. PantheaCon is huge. I’ve honestly never seen anything like this. This very nice classy hotel is overrun with Pagans, and I love it. Such a vibrant, diverse and friendly group of people to... Read more
Weyland (also known as Volund) is a legendary blacksmith, which we have references to from both Norse (Þiðrekssaga & the Poetic Edda’s Völundarkviða) and Anglo-Saxon (Beowulf, Deor and Waldere) sources. In the archaeological record we see his story depicted on the Swedish Ardre image stone VIII, the Franks Casket, and a variety of stone cross and monuments throughout England. Weyland has a reputation in folk stories that once he was paid, no matter how impossible the job asked for, that... Read more
I’m off to Pantheacon bright and early in the morning. I look forward to seeing all the amazing folks there. The programming list looks excellent. Lots of hard choices to make about which workshops, rituals and concerts to attend. What I can guarantee is that I will be at the following events: The Pagan Newswire Collective is having a Meet ‘n’ Greet on Saturday, 5-7pm, at the COG/NWC/NROOGD Suite, and I will be there hanging with the PNC folks. These... Read more
One thing that ADF-style ritual is very big on is sacrifice. During the course of a ritual, I give sacrifices of barley and oats to the Earth Mother, I give incense to the fire, silver to the well, and enjoy anointing the tree with oil. I give sacrifices to the three Kindred (the Ancestors, Nature Spirits, and the Gods). In short, I give something for everyone that is invited to share in the sacredness of ritual space and time. It... Read more
No matter what some Christians (and none too small a number of Pagans) might like to think, the connections between the Roman festival of Lupercalia on February 15 and St. Valentine’s Day on February 14 are, in fact, few to none. The idea that Lupercalia is “all about fertility,” and thus some sort of distant, more physical and amorous (and therefore “Pagan”) cousin to Valentine’s Day, is more than a bit of an exaggeration. The part of the festival that... Read more
My coven’s more or less unofficial motto (we never went through a formal process of adopting it, on the other hand nobody saw fit to argue with me about it) is Omnia vincit amor. I am a devotee of Ishtar, and its her kind of turn of phrase. Love…and battles. My inner eleven-year-old recalls that the phrase “Love conquers all” is the parting syrupy chorus in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, a story that like so many things was much darker in... Read more
Yesterday Galina Krasskova wrote that she finds Aphrodite terrifying. I get that. Aphrodite doesn’t terrify me but she’s not my style. She’s as relevant to me as the World Cup or who cuts Justin Bieber’s hair. Besides, Aphrodite doesn’t care for me and that’s ok. You see, I’m devoted to Hephaistos, and he and Aphrodite don’t care for each other. They have what is known as a marriage of inconvenience. Zeus had them marry only to prevent war among the... Read more
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