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Pantheacon 2011; Good times

Ave,

So, I took a much-needed break from all this energy jibba-jabba (which I'm guilty of starting...been a great conversation though!) with my peers to attend Pantheacon. Gentleman, pardon me for not replying and joining in the latest conversation on your blogs (VH Fra SR, Fra Jason, Fra RO, and Fra Jack), I've been super busy. Anyway, I think enough's been said for everyone to know everyone else's position. We'll all just call it what it is, and we'll argue about it again in a couple of years. Haha. Veles just posted an awesome Terry Pratchet quote: "The plural of Wizard is Wizards, the plural of Witch is Arguement." Hilarious and true, except Wizards (or Magicians, or Sorcerers....) should be right there with the Witches.  Some insightful things said. I'm going to resist writing another essay about why my viewpoint is clearly more awesome than yours, and move on.

Them's is jokes, ya'll.

Panthecon was a very interesting experience. I've never been a part of the Pagan community (although my work with and veneration of the Planetary Gods would place me under the Pagan umbrella...), and so didn't have any idea what to expect. It was awesome. I definitely need to reach out and participate more in the pagan community here in the bay area, there are some interesting folk from all walks of life involved.

The folks who worked at Pantheacon were very helpful and friendly, outside of one spectacularly rude incident, which I'm sure was an aberration. And so colorful! All kinds of crazy-looking outfits and the like. It was a pleasant change from the everyday.

I stood out like a sore thumb; I'll need to get into the spirit a bit next year, so that folk are more comfortable. Wear something fun, carry a staff....something. It would be nice to be easily identifiably. It would also be nice to receive fewer confused looks from my people.=) If there is a "look" for the modern pagan, I don't have it. Demographically or otherwise--not super important, but with representatives from Black religions and practices like Hoodoo and Voudon teaching, I would have expected more African faces. I believe, counting myself, there were around 4 there, wandering about. This is over multiple days and hours at the convention. This is no fault of the Pagan community, which was beyond accepting and friendly. There are events that the Black community of Sorcerers, Conjurers and Magicians holds which aren't well attended by those outside of that community. There's seldom much marketing about them. Perhaps it's because our community is so insular; I wonder what I could do to encourage more inter-mingling of the communities? Can't really complain about it, as I'm not very active with either community. Going to have to change that. It would be a good thing, I think.

Also, beards. Lot's of 'em. And corsets. Fantastic!

They had a great variety of programs, and I unfortunately missed a lot of the stuff that I wanted to see because too much good shit was scheduled all at once! If there were any complaint to make, that would be mine...there's just no way to see everything, and no one was documenting these talks via video, which seems like madness to me. We outta be able to document these things, report about them. Tech blogs are all over MWC or CES, and our equivalent get nothing....no video, little text, and no audio. Just a damn shame. The explanation I received was that people could lose their jobs over attending.

....really?

That seems like a stretch these days. Barring the illegality of firing someone over their religious preference, times have changed. There are certainly some places and circles where Pagans are shunned, and people do have a right to privacy. Seems to me that they should avoid attending public events, then. I'm sure it's complicated. I think that we lose a lot in not sharing the great things that happen at these events. Just my opinion.

The best part for me was my initiation into the Great Rite. I'll be posting about it soon, I need to internalize some more. It was an absolutely amazing experience. Will talk about it soon!

In LVX,

AIT

Comments

  1. ....Thinking about it more, people shouldn't have to miss out on a great event like this because their neighbors are dickbags.There's a lot of wisdom being shared at these talks that I think people would benefit from, though. There's the rub, I guess. I'll try and volunteer to do some AV/Photography for the next Pantheacon, and hopefully I can pitch in and make a difference there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Care Fra A.I.T.,

    thanks for thsi interresting report. I hope we will get some pics (even if taken by phone cam). I do understand people's concerns and maybe a solution for that could be having clearly marked and declared public photo and filming areas so anyone who would remain incognito could refrain from going there. I believe it is a question of how to approach this querstion. It is indeed a shame that there is no better coverage about the event there, specifically for those who cannot attend.

    Anyways, glad you had a great time.

    In L.V.X.

    Arcad

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was something we ran into at a much smaller scale at Crucible. Some people are in education, one speaker was a teacher at a parochial school, while another had a very strict corporate policy build into his contract, where he could not be filmed of photographed doing anything that might bring shame to the company.. ever. Some aren't ready to be out of the closet yet. That was solved by camera angles in the beginning and later special effects.

    But I totally understand the fear, sadly it still goes on.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I almost laughed myself out of my chair imagining you in a fuzzy purple "stars and moons" robe, complete with pointy hat. Don't ask my why that's the first thing my imagination jumped to =p

    ReplyDelete

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