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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…)
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…)
I decided to start Saturday 13 February 2010, at PantheaCon with “Ancient Egyptian Prayers” by Tamara L Siuda, the current head of the Kemetic Orthodoxy group. While Tamara holds two Masters Degrees in relevant fields she doesn’t limit herself to a purely academic approach of worshipping the ancient Egyptian deities. She and her group incorporate elements channeled through dreams as Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG) and practice ancestor worship. UPG is a hot topic within reconstructionist circles. On the one hand it cannot be unambiguously verified from academic source texts, but on the other hand it restores the vitality which ancient religions had in their heyday. (more…)
On Friday 12 February 2010, PantheaCon kicked off. While I don’t know the exact numbers, PantheaCon is the biggest event that Jo-Ann and I attend, and typically attracts roughly 3000 pagans from all over the US, as well as a few from overseas. PantheaCon is put on by Glenn Turner of Ancient Ways, along with a small army of volunteers.
The problem with PantheaCon is that there up to a dozen presentations at any given time slot. Scheduling all these presentations is a nightmare. (more…)
On Thursday 11 February 2010, the day before PantheaCon started, Cherry Hill Seminary (CHS) held their Winter Conference. The conference, which featured Steven Posch, went really well with participants thoroughly enjoying themselves. Steven was his usually bubbly effervescent self.
We were privileged to have Robert Brandon Longcrier of the Military Pagan Network in attendance. He recently came to prominence by establishing a worship area for earth-based religions at the US Airforce Academy in Colorado. The site was subsequently desecrated by Christians who surreptitiously left a huge cross in the worship area. Why are some Christians so obsessed with trying to force the world to believe what they’ve chosen to believe? Everyone should be able to practice their own religion as they choose without interference by intolerant minority groups.
One of the best things about the Winter Conference is that it is the event that brings together the largest number of CHS students, faculty and board members. It’s great actually meeting people who I normally communicate with via email and sometimes telephone. For photographs, check out CHS’s Facebook page.
Tony Mierzwicki
