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Saturday, August 28th, saw the inaugural TheurgiCon being held at The Doubletree Hotel in Berkeley, California. The location was absolutely beautiful affording breathtaking water views. I just love being around water, as it has such a wonderful relaxing effect.
The event was hosted by Glenn Turner, the woman behind (more…)
Friday August 6 to Sunday August 8, 2010, saw the inaugural Los Angeles Harvest Festival, a pagan camping event, held at Ojai in Ventura County.
The event grew out of May Magick, which is a popular Beltane Festival for participants over 18 years of age. A number of May Magick participants wanted a festival to which they could bring their children, and the Los Angeles Harvest Festival was born. (more…)
On 25 April 2010 a group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers from the conveniently called Noah’s Ark Ministries International research team, announced that they had found the wooden remains of Noah’s Ark at an altitude of 13,000ft on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. They claimed that carbon dating done in Iran proved that the relics were 4,800 years old — around the same time the ark was said to be afloat – and that they were 99.9 % certain that they had found the Biblical Ark.
Within a few days of this story, The Christian Science Monitor was declaring the find as a hoax. Dr Randall Price, a longtime searcher himself for the ark and former member of the Chinese-led team (more…)
On Saturday, 10 April 2010, the world was stunned to find out that the Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country’s highest military and civilian leaders died, when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, killing all 97 people on board.
The delegation were on their way to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre, wherein almost 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia were executed by Soviet troops in 1940, burying the victims in the Katyn forest. Somewhat ironically the executions were discovered by Nazis in 1943, (more…)
On December 10, 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It is the most widely translated document in the world (having been translated into at least 375 languages and dialects) and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are entitled. The Declaration sets out 30 rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled. Article 18 is particularly important to the practice of paganism:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
The US has a long tradition of promoting religious freedom. (more…)
The last day of PantheaCon always has an element of sadness. People are packing and going back home. Virtually everyone is requesting a late checkout and it takes hours to get one of the trolleys to move your things back to your car. Attending workshops becomes a challenge, but I managed to get to two.
The first was “Oracles and Divination in Ancient Egypt” by Richard Reidy, who is the author of Eternal Egypt: Ancient Rituals for the Modern World. Richard’s approach to the practice of ancient Egyptian religion is a bit different to that of Tamara L Siuda (whose workshop I attended on Saturday morning). Richard’s approach is that he limits himself solely to source texts. As I have previously discussed, this seems to me to be largely a matter of taste. (more…)
I presented my first workshop on the morning of Sunday 14 February 2010, at PantheaCon. This was quite a special day, being both Valentines Day and my second wedding anniversary. My workshop was titled “Magickal Initiation in Ancient Egypt.” The workshop went quite well, with a large group experiencing an authentic Graeco-Egyptian ritual.
I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there were two workshops on Neoplatonism, one following on from the other. The first, “What is Neoplatonism & Why Should I Care?” was presented by Don Frew, who is widely known for his interfaith work. Don’s workshop was very easy to follow and was an excellent introduction to Neoplatonism. Don showed just how important Neoplatonism was to Gerald Gardner, and by logical extension, to the practice of contemporary Wicca.
Lunch was a lot of fun. (more…)
