Making Connections at PantheaCon 2009
There’s not much point in adding to the voluminous praises heaped upon San Jose’s PantheaCon. I will say, however, that it brings together a huge number of authors, presenters and pagans from all over the US and is a showcase of the diversity inherent within our community. There is so much to see and do, that it is impossible to avoid the disappointment of missing events due having to make too many choices. It would be very difficult to not have your own personal path enriched through contact with representatives of paths very different to your own.
In the years that I have been going to PantheaCon I’ve met some absolutely wonderful people who I feel very close to. They know who they are, and probably don’t need to see their names in print.
There is far more diversity in the pagan community in the US than in the Australian community from which I have come. Reconstructionists are as rare as hen’s teeth in Australia, whereas there seems no shortage at events such as PantheaCon. While I have met several, the ones who have occupied most of my time have been Sannion, Oinokhoe, Pyrokanthos and Phillupus.
The meeting freshest in my mind is with Phillupus, otherwise known as P Sufenas Virius Lupus, author of The Phillupic Hymns. Phillupus is one of the founders of Ekklesia Antinoou, a queer Graeco-Roman-Egyptian syncretistic group which venerates Antinous, the deified lover of the Emperor Hadrian. Phillupus hosted a rather interesting Lupercalia Ritual at this year’s PantheaCon which featured a very familiar performance quirk.
Shortly after the opening of the ritual, Phillupus had everyone face the four cardinal directions – East, West, North, South and back to East. This 270 degree clockwise rotation followed by a 270 degree counterclockwise rotation is one of the characteristics of Graeco-Egyptian Magick. I actually deal with it in Appendix 3 of my book, Graeco-Egyptian Magick: Everyday Empowerment.
Needless to say, I discussed this point with Phillupus. He explained to me that he had incorporated his own translation of the inscriptions on the Obelisk of Antinous into the ritual. There are inscriptions on all four faces, and he found that they made most sense when read in the order East, West, North and South, rather than in a unidirectional fashion.
There is a paucity of information about Hadrian and Antinous, but we do know that they were both initiated into the Mysteries of Eleusis. Fritz Graf points out in Magic in the Ancient World that the various Mysteries and magick were thought of as connected by the ancients. The sad reality is that we know very little about the Mysteries of Eleusis and much of what is written is speculation. Consequently the connection between the various Mysteries and magick could either imply that initiation into one normally leads to initiation in the other, or that the Mysteries had a strong magickal component. Regardless, however, to me it makes perfect sense that someone versed in magick would insist on inscribing a sacred obelisk in a magickal order rather than in a simple circular order, to be read whilst circumambulating.
It seems that Phillupus has really hit on something, but at this early stage, it is important to resist the urge to read too much into it.