The event was hosted by Glenn Turner, the woman behind PantheaCon. PantheaCon and Starwood have been competing with each other over the title of largest US pagan gathering for years.

The theme of the event was Theurgy, which literally means “god working,” and was practiced in the first few centuries CE, but never really died out. The idea of the conference was to cover the subject chronologically, with each speaker building on what the previous speaker had covered. Of course none of us strictly adhered to this, as we all wanted to cover historical developments in our respective topics.

After an “Opening Panel” where Glenn introduced the speakers, I got the ball rolling with a talk on “Hermeticism.” Hermeticism is the basis of medieval European magick and Alchemy, and much modern ceremonial magick. I made a point of focusing on the overlap between Hermeticism and Theurgy.

Next up was Brandy Williams with her talk on “Chaldean Oracles in the Western Mystery Tradition.” Brandy identified quotes taken from the Chaldean Oracles that had been snuck into many esoteric rituals and texts without explanation. She provided an overview of the Chaldean Oracles and the techniques employed therein. She then discussed a Shinto ritual that dated back to the time that the Chaldean Oracles were written that was tantalizingly similar. While overlaps were to be expected within the Hellenistic world, the eastern limit lay in India. So was this a coincidence, or a result of trade routes being used for knowledge as well as goods?

The following talk was presented by Don Frew and was titled “Neo-Platonism & Wicca Today.” Don gave on overview of Neoplatonism, which was the final synthesis of all of the philosophical systems of the pre-Christian Mediterranean world. When Gerald Gardner started Wicca, it was popularly thought of as ancient. The last few years have seen a number of authors stating that it was a modern hodgepodge of various spiritual modalities. Don presented compelling arguments that the core of modern Wicca was actually taken from Neoplatonism.

A well needed lunch break followed which allowed all of us to process the information overload as well as to catch up with friends. Glenn was kind enough to put on a smorgasbord in the hospitality suite. The food on offer was a hearty fare consisting of antipasto, salad with sliced cheese, potato salad and bread rolls. One of the benefits of a small event is that it’s possible to feed just about everyone without requiring a miracle of the loaves and the fishes.

With the ancient historical material out of the way, Diana Young was able to present “The Nexus of Mystic and Magus,” on post-Golden Dawn Theurgy, focusing on Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley (both of whom are referred to in the title of the talk). Diana then gave a taste for one her contemporary Theurgic rituals, which was developed for a group of 20 or so people, taking on various roles including bell ringing. For her performance, she was joined by Robert Young, who has been her colleague since 1971. The theatrical background of both of them was very obvious in their verbal delivery.

The last solo talk was delivered by Sam Webster who discussed “Theurgy in Our Community.” Building on the talks that had preceded him, Sam pointed out that around 300 CE, temples were found in every city and provided a venue for the practice of Neoplatonism. He then went on highlight the importance for contemporary pagans of having our own temples again to foster a sense of community as well as facilitating devotion to our deities.

The event formally ended with a “Closing Panel” where all of the presenters shared their feelings about the event and fielded questions. It was generally felt that TheurgiCon was a success and that there was a need for such a specialized event. With a mover and shaker like Glenn behind it, I can see it growing into something absolutely wonderful. Besides it’d be great to meet up with friends from the Bay Area twice a year rather than just once!

Many of us then went back to the hospitality suite to finish off the leftovers from lunch as well as sample the wine and chocolates brought by Glenn’s entourage. The best of the chocolates were dark chocolate truffles that were to die for, while the pick of the wines was a scrumptious red bottled from one hundred year old local vines. This was a pleasant relaxing end to a great day.

I had decided to go to TheurgiCon by Amtrak, which meant a combination of trains and buses. The trains had power outlets at every seat, which was great, but alas, there was no WiFi internet access. The trains also had snacks available for sale. The buses, on the other hand, had little to recommend them. The scenery varied from poor run down areas, to unspoiled wilderness areas and water frontage, to farmland and orchards. It’s amazing how much more you notice when you’re not focusing on driving.

Cherry Hill Seminary president, Macha NightMare, had kindly agreed to take me to and from the train station and crash at her place. It was great spending a bit of time with her and Corby, and I probably won’t see them again until PantheaCon.

Tony Mierzwicki

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. Well, maybe it wasn’t quite that easy, as Lady Oxanamoon and her cronies laboured very hard indeed to make it all happen.

Regarding the attendees, in terms of numbers, they could be divided into heathens and non-heathens, with the non-heathens coming from the traditions of Wicca, shamanism, eclecticism and the odd reconstructionists. Mixed events are a wonderful thing in the pagan community as they foster greater understanding amongst the various traditions.

The event featured two schedules – one for adults and one for children. Parents were able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their children would be well looked after and entertained. Children’s activities were put on by Katie Olivares (author of the ABC Book of Shadows), Devon, Lady Oxanamoon and others.

The adult schedule got off to a late start as many participants arrived late. I suspect that many a karmic debt was paid off through suffering in torturous Friday traffic. Many of Friday afternoon’s events were moved to Saturday.

As stated previously, the heathens were very well represented, and their events gave the non-heathens an opportunity to experience something of the flavour of their spiritual path. Lisa Morgenstern and Nan of Hrafn Skjoldr Kindred, an Asatru / Heathen Kindred in the Antelope Valley, presented a number of heathen oriented events including an oracular seidh and a harvest blot. Lisa’s husband, John Morgenstern of Morningstar Meadery, presented a mead making workshop – after all, what is a pagan event without mead? On Saturday night we were treated to an acoustic set by Hauk and Boyd of Hauk.

Lisa also put on a non-heathen workshop on prosperity magick, which was quite appropriate given our current hard economic times. Don Michael Kraig gave two workshops – one on Golden Dawn magick and the other on Chakra charging. The scoop on Don, is that the second edition of his legendary Modern Magick is about to replaced by an expanded third edition. I was forced to combine my workshops “Introduction to Graeco-Egyptian Magick” and “Selene, the Moon Goddess” on Saturday and presented “Ancient Curses and Binding Spells” on Sunday. The “Seussical” and “Where the Wild Things Are” rituals might have been aimed at children, but were just as popular with the adults.

The only complaint that I had about the whole event was outside the control of the organizers, and concerned the creek running through the campsite being bone dry. Those who attended May Magick were able to take full advantage of it, but alas, Los Angeles Harvest Festival attendees weren’t quite so lucky. Wheeler Gorge was fairly close and enabled those of us who were so inclined to get their feet wet and give our dogs a swim.

There’s always an element of sadness in leaving an event and saying goodbye to friends old and new. This time around, however, there was something to look forward to upon leaving the campsite…

One of Ojai’s best kept secrets is the natural hot springs. Even though we were given directions, there was no way we would’ve found them if we hadn’t had the benefit of a local to show us (thanks Joseph!). We followed a long winding narrow road for several miles until we smelled the telltale rotten egg gas smell of the sulphur springs and saw a number of cars parked on the gravel off the road. A short hike took us to a number of gloriously warm pools which were being enjoyed by a group of thirty or so people. We took full advantage of the hot springs, smearing black clay on our faces, letting our makeshift mud masks clean out our pores, while all our tensions melted away. While in the springs we found the source of the hot water, whereupon we set out to establish a connection with the underworld deities, which tied in with my workshop on “Ancient Curses and Binding Spells” rather nicely! Eventually, after almost two hours, the setting sun forced us to retreat to our cars. It was the perfect end to a fantastic weekend.

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. While I think it is important to have a well researched core to your own practice, whether or not you choose to “improvise” is a personal choice. Richard is someone who is obviously devoted to his practice, and I felt quite inspired listening to the relationships he had forged with his primary deities over a lengthy period of time. I also enjoyed listening to his thoughts about some of the Demotic magickal texts dating back to late antiquity which we both use – there simply aren’t many people using this stuff, so it’s definitely not something you hear everyday.

The last workshop that Jo-Ann and I attended was the very last one put on by Patrick McCollum called “Creating the Sacred Oil: The Origins of Magical Oils in Ritual.” Patrick was actually involved in eight workshops all up, and he had a very large group for this one. One of Patrick’s missions in life is to prevent craft secrets from being lost – much has actually been lost in just the last couple of generations as pagan elders die off. To this end, he taught us how to manufacture the original Sacred Oil used by witches in ancient times. The workshop didn’t end there, as Patrick told us how to modify the Sacred Oil recipe to turn it into Flying Ointment, but requested that we not upload it to the internet. The composition of Flying Ointment is normally a closely guarded secret, so to be honest, I was quite surprised when he revealed it to the group. But, at least this way, the composition will not be lost any time soon.

After some sad goodbyes to our friends who were still there, including the ever gorgeous Orion Foxwood, it was time for Jo-Ann and myself to drive back home.

Tony Mierzwicki

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. Jo-Ann and I joined Frater Barrabbas, Steven Posch and HiC [a tarot reading Kemetic Wiccan] for an hour of wit and frivolity.

Just after lunch I participated in the Immanion Author panel. A number of the Immanion authors at PantheaCon were part of the panel, including Taylor Ellwood and Lupa, Erynn Laurie, Sarai St Julien, Crystal Blanton, Frater Barrabbas and Denny Sargent a.k.a. AION 131. The panel was an informal chat with authors discussing their backgrounds and how they got onto their present path. The common thread was that all of us were unable to find what we were looking for in published material and so put together our own systems.

Following this, there was a panel featuring a number of well known Weiser authors titled “Earth Based Religion: Are We Really?” The panel was moderated by T Thorn Coyle and included Diana Paxson, Z Budapest, Orion Foxwood and Lon Milo DuQuette. It was fascinating hearing authors from widely divergent traditions giving their take on just how “earth-based” their spiritual modalities actually are. At the end of the panel, future pagan authors in the audience chatted to the two Weiser acquisitions editors, trying to get an idea of which way the publishing winds were blowing.

Following on from Don Frew’s workshop was “On the One: Critical Remarks on Pagan Neoplatonism” by Nathan Bjorge, who is probably best known for his work in Thelema. Nathan’s workshop was far more technical than Don’s, but was greatly appreciated by those who already had a basic grounding in the subject matter.

While I was at Nathan’s workshop, Jo-Ann went to “Visceral Magick” by Peter Paddon. She thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and had a number of “light bulb moments.”

Twelve hours after my first workshop began, I gave my second workshop, “Greek Nature Deities and Gaia Consciousness.” This workshop was an expansion of the paper which I presented to the 6th Conference on Current Pagan Studies at Claremont Graduate University just two weeks previously. I felt privileged to have the presence of Lon Milo DuQuette at both workshops while Selena Fox and Elysia Gallo of Llewellyn were at the second one. At the end of the workshop Selena shared her deep love of Greek deities. Having been part of a classical education, the Greek deities are incredibly prevalent in our society – especially in popular culture, where they pervade advertising, literature and the cinema.

It seems that at every PantheaCon I manage to find someone with whom to have an incredibly cerebral conversation. This time around, it was with Jonathan Korman, whom I managed to separate from T Thorn Koyle, and other Feri folk such as Shade and Flame. Jonathan, who has contributed to Thorn’s Solar Cross project, is a practitioner of Western Hermeticism whose catchcry for completing the Great Work is “Know your dharma, live your dharma.” We had an intense discussion covering a broad array of esoteric topics, which will hopefully be one day continued.

While Jonathan and I were chatting, Thorn, her friend Amanda and Barbara McCollum abducted Jo-Ann, and took her to the party in full swing in Sam Webster’s suite for the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn. There was much to celebrate as Sam has just published his first book, Tantric Thelema. The party eventually broke up into smaller groups so as to keep overall noise levels down.

A word of advice for next year’s PantheaCon attendees – if you’re thinking of getting a room on the tenth floor which is party central and you like getting early nights, don’t.

Tony Mierzwicki

I then attended “AMHA 101: Primitive Hebrew Earth spirituality – the basics” by Elisheva Nesher. Elisheva is an amazing speaker – a font of knowledge about Hebrew tribal spirituality, which is a spiritual modality far removed from the better known Judaism and Qabala. I’m very fortunate to meet up with Elisheva twice a year – PantheaCon and Starwood.

Continuing my academic overload for the day, I attended “The Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone” by Charles Stein. Dr Stein covered a lot of ground in his talk, admitting that very little is known about the Eleusinian Mysteries, and rehashed the theory of entheogens being used to facilitate spiritual experiences. Dr Stein believes that there are valuable lessons that can be incorporated into contemporary life that can be obtained by studying what is known about the mysteries, which he claims led to a lessening of the fixation we all have on personal identity.

“Global Meltdown? McGyver 101: Pagan Survival Techniques” by Patrick McCollum was just the change of pace that I needed. Patrick talked about techniques for surviving in wilderness areas using common everyday objects, so as to produce warmth and water. He illustrated the importance of his workshop by recounting the story of a man who died from exposure despite having all the requisite everyday objects around him – a tragic death which could have been preventing with just a little knowledge. Patrick then went on to talk about combining excrement and urine over a period of a few days to produce crystals of potassium nitrate or saltpeter, which is a component of gun powder. Patrick’s talk showed just how much knowledge we’ve lost, as virtually everything he talked about would have been common knowledge a couple of generations ago.

After four intense informative workshops it was time to socialize and network. And who better to socialize with than Jamie Martinez Wood and her boyfriend, Jeep. We went off to dinner and found ourselves sitting next to Richard Reidy and his partner. Any hope that Richard may have had for a quiet tranquil dinner quickly evaporated!

Jo-Ann and I had an early night as both of my workshops were scheduled for the following day.

Tony Mierzwicki

The problem with PantheaCon is that there up to a dozen presentations at any given time slot. Scheduling all these presentations is a nightmare. Presentations from particular genres are put on at different times, so those attendees who are interested in just one genre don’t have a problem. If, however, your interests are like mine and span a number of genres, then you’re going to have clashes. I found myself tempted by the huge variety of lectures on offer, and wished it was somehow possible to get my hands on Hermione Granger’s Time-Turner so that I could see everything which appeals to me!

Everyone’s experience at PantheaCon is different, and so I thought that I’d share mine.

As we were checking into the hotel a bit later than we hoped, we wound up missing the Opening Ritual and the first round of workshops at 1:30pm. The first workshop I attended was at 3:30pm and was “22 Steps of the Cycle of Initiation – Transformative Journeys” by Frater Barrabbas, which explored similarities between Joseph Campbell’s 22 stages of the Hero’s Underworld Cycle and the 22 Major Arcana cards of the Tarot. Frater Barrabbas devotes himself to innovative blendings and developments of various spiritual modalities, but primarily focuses on Alexandrian Wicca and the Golden Dawn system. Meanwhile, Jo-Ann attended “Ecologically Minded Pagans in Action” by Jamie Martinez Wood.

We then decided to have a break from the workshops on offer and socialized/networked with friends and authors we hadn’t seen in several months. It’s just so hard limiting yourself to the lunch and dinner breaks!

While the drink of choice at most pagan gatherings is mead, absinthe (Aleister Crowley’s Green Goddess) seems to have that distinction at PantheaCon. Because there were absinthe parties on offer, we felt it was important to be fully informed and to that end, attended “Absinthe Cocktails: Mixing it up with Le Fae Verte” by Jeff Winters. Jeff’s “show and tell” approach was wildly popular, with sample cocktails being shared around.

Jo-Ann and I left the absinthe workshop with Jamie Martinez Wood and her boyfriend, Jeep.[ Jeep is a fascinating guy who tags endangered birds of prey out in the wild as part of his job.] We wound up knocking on the door of the room occupied by William Blumberg [CHS vice president] and Angela Pearson, wheat weavers extraordinaire. Despite both being in their pajamas, they let us in and were incredibly hospitable. As we were leaving, we overheard Angela asking “Mr William” to fluff her pillows.

While many others continued partying into the wee hours of the morning, Jo-Ann and I eventually decided to call it a night as we had an early start the following day.

Tony Mierzwicki

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

While not every presenter was an academic, there were a large number of people who either had PhDs or were well on their way to being awarded their PhDs. In a world where there are many people who buy dodgy unaccredited online degrees in an effort to enhance their profile, it’s gratifying that old fashioned scholarship is still valued.

Cherry Hill Seminary was well represented by Macha Nightmare (who did not present this year), William Blumberg and myself. I presented a paper on “Greek nature Deities and Gaia Consciousness.” At PantheaCon, I will be expanding on this paper and incorporating an invocation of the nymphs.

I had a great time at the conference and found it a wonderful opportunity to network with pagan academics and “pagan friendly” academics. If you missed it this year, definitely check it out next year.

Tony Mierzwicki

While the primary focus was on the entertainment, there were a few well known authors in attendance. The ones whom I spotted were Ann Finnin and her husband David, co-founders of the Roebuck Tradition; author and agent, Denise Dumars; and, musician and author, Kenny Klein, and his wife, Anna.

I spent an enjoyable day there, making myself available to chat about Cherry Hill Seminary and the Winter Conference. I was assisted in my task by members of Covenant of the Goddess who had Cherry Hill Seminary flyers on their table.

The weather was quite pleasant, which contributed to a good turnout. While there were many familiar faces there, it was great to see some new people as well.

Tony Mierzwicki

I had the pleasure of meeting Steven at the Sacred Harvest Festival 2008. For some reason, he wasn’t as heavily promoted at this event as he was at the previous year’s one. I made a point of attending his workshop and participated in his impromptu sunset rituals as he had come highly recommended by my good friend, Macha Nightmare. I was not disappointed, as Steven has an entertaining inimitable style.

I have fond memories of sitting around a campfire relaxing with newly made friends, including Steven. The booze flowed freely, but not quite as freely as the conversations. Steven had a great sense of humour and was a pleasure to hang with.

There is a substantial discount for those who register before 6 December.

Tony Mierzwicki