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Pantheacon Pagan Convention 2001
Author:
Posted: March 8th. 2001
Times Viewed: 7,031
Location: San Francisco, CA
Event Date(s): February 16-19 2001
This year was my third Pantheacon, which is put on by Glen Turner of Ancient Ways Occult Bookstore in Oakland, CA. http://www.ancientways.com/ (Same producer as for Ancient Ways Festival in Middletown, CA - this year held on May 16-20, 2001 http://www.ancientways.com/html/festivals.html for more info. Those planning to attend should register soon for discounts and especially to reserve a room if camping out is not to your taste.)
I was excited to attend this year, and I had just gone through a dot-com layoff and had lots of free time to really experience it all at my leisure. There were more authors and speakers and workshops than ever before, and I found myself spending the weeks before the con trying to plan how to spend my time while there. I did manage to attend several great lectures, a really good ritual or two and a terrific panel workshop on divination. I also noticed much higher attendance and a huge festival marketplace that was amazing and fun!
Appearing, presenting and speaking this year was a vast assortment of authors and teachers, many of whom I was just itching to meet and hear. Among them were
Whew! And even with this many 'celebrity' appearances, there were just as many other presenters if not more, creating a daily schedule that included no less than 10 simultaneous tracks! Pick and choose was the game of the day, let me tell you!
  This convention takes place in a hotel in San Francisco, and although it has been at the same one for a few years, they are now seeking another venue for next year - and just in time, as the con seems to be growing fast! The facilities were pretty good, considering the size of the crowd. Although the meeting rooms were sometimes a tight fit for the attendees, everyone managed to work things out. The size of workshops and lecture audiences was anywhere from a dozen to 200! And the rituals and dances were also pretty large.
I found myself feeling really positive, being surrounded by so many Pagans. One of the fun things about Pantheacon is that many of those attending also go to Ancient Ways Festival - so there is plenty of time for greeting old friends and making plans for Summer gatherings and meeting up later. Also a large percentage of the attendees of Pantheacon are from California, especially Bay Area residents - so there is ample opportunity for folks to network and connect after the con. There are also a lot of attendees who stay at the hotel, and hold get-togethers, parties and rituals in their rooms.
Since this is a convention in the heart of a big city, there are plenty of places locally for folks to grab a bite and have a drink together, although I saw a lot of folks eating and drinking right in the hotel restaurant, cafe and bar. Since I live nearby, my routine was to arrive from home early in the morning, have a nice restaurant breakfast at the hotel to start my day off right, and then proceed to various lectures, workshops, rituals, and so on with plenty of shopping opportunities in between! The marketplace was packed with merchants, and you would not believe the splendor of that vendor floor. For the first time, Fields Books from San Francisco had a booth, and that brought the bookseller count up to 3 booths, including Ancient Ways Bookstore's own booth. But wait, there's more!
I include a review of the state of the merchant floor because it was a really vital meeting place and a thriving area of community connections. There were jewelry, clothing, perfumers, and numerous amber-sellers. There was at least one purveyor of interesting leather goods for ritual and other uses. The offerings of ritual garb this year was splendid, and many of us bought clothes there and changed on the spot! I got a marvelous royal purple velvet burnout kimono jacket that got me dozens of compliments! There were sellers of ritual tools such as crowns, blades, wands, cups and pentacles of every variety.
 Folks from virtually every Pagan tradition were there in force, presenting their arts, crafts, paintings, sculpture, and metalurgy for our perusal and purchase. There were sellers of Pagan T-shirts, CDs and tapes of music, and even a sexy lingerie display complete with feather boas! All was well in the marketplace, and I spent plenty, let me tell you. I also got the chance to schmooze with merchants and buyers from all over the country, many of whom I had known from prior fests. This year there was a cloak and bag check booth which cost a dollar per item, all proceeds going to the legal defense fund of a Pagan family who is battling for child custody. The festival security/information services were at an all-time high, and there was a visible presence of black-clad convention staff in head-sets helping attendees.
But the height of the con for me was getting a chance to hear the spoken words of some authors who have really influenced me over the years. In a few instances it was a tough choice between two authors speaking at the same time, but I managed the ordeal as best I could. All of the book sellers in the merchant floor offered a selection of titles by each of the published authors who was presenting at the con, which was really great. And I think all of the authors got a very good attendance this year. Here are some reflections on the most memorable lectures I attended.
Victor Anderson, speaking on the Faery / Feri Tradition. Mr. Anderson doesn't have his own website, but this site http://www.tombostudios.com/faeryindex.html was created by one of his students and displays some of his unpublished poetry and writings, as well as information on how to order his book of Witch Poetry, Thorns of the Blood Rose. Mr. Anderson, who is very old now, spoke with the assistance of a microphone from a seated position. For him to appear was a very significant thing, as he rarely leaves the side of his dear wife Cora since her serious stroke of a few years ago. He was in good spirits and in fine voice, and essentially allowed the audience to ask questions relating to the Feri tradition as he practices and understands it. The lecture followed this informal question/answer format for well over an hour, and it was just riveting!
Victor spoke on the importance of maintaining a high standard of ethics and honor within the tradition, and compared Feri to practicing a martial art, to Huna, and not unlike the Japanese Shinto tradition. He also drew parallels between Feri and indigenous shamanic practices in various parts of the world such as South America, Australia, Europe and Pacific Islands. Mr. Anderson is considered one of the last old-time Kahunas, trained in Hawaii, and spoke on the subject of Huna at length. Very memorable were his remarks on what he terms 'Pagan Innocence', and also our Pagan heritage of sexuality which is honest and open. He emphasised that the responsible and athentic Witch sexuality ought not to be careless, and his view of Pagan sexuality is that it ought to be sincere and honorable, seeking to share one another rather than 'be vampires'. The audience was huge, and there was an incredible amount of audience participation and questioning. It was clearly a high honor to be present for this Elder's talk.
 Robert Anton Wilson, speaking on Being in the Quality of Maybe. He encourages everyone to please visit his website http://deoxy.org/raw.htm, http://www.rawilson.com/ for a good laugh and to send him email and learn more about his work. Mr. Wilson was another presenter who is very old, and due to post-polio syndrome he was in a wheelchair. He made ceaseless jests and brought the audience to laughter with nearly every remark. He opened with a general talk on the quality of Maybe, general chaos theory and some rather interesting political and quantum physics thoughts as well. He opened the floor up to questions after about 15 minutes or so, and the audience was literally competing for a chance to ask questions. His style and manner were so calm yet so provocative, he was truly a pleasure to hear. Although he commented on being old and losing his short-term memory somewhat, I saw no evidence of any loss of mental acuity or wit in this Elder author. When pressed, he allowed as how he might write a fourth book in his series, as hinted at previously. But he made no promises as to timing.
Lon DuQuette, author of the Tarot of Ceremonial Magick and other Qabbalistic titles, (WebSite) gave an intimate talk about what he refers to as 'chicken Cabala', which is a humorous approach to what some consider a challenging occult field of study. He will have a new title coming in May which addresses this, but his talk managed to cover all the basics of the Four Qabalistic Worlds, the composition of the Tetragrammaton, the four aspects of the soul and more. He had us all laughing out loud, and there were many amusing and insightful handouts.
I think it was really telling that Lon was so actually humble and self-effacing, and that he seemed to be almost embarrassed to plug his books. Once he got into his topic he really seemed to relish it, and he favored us all with some reading from his forthcoming book Chicken Qabala. I think it is high time someone produced a humorous and lighthearted look at the Tree of Life. And Lon is such an endearing teacher, it was a genuine priveledge to be there. He also mentioned that at his website he has published an online book worth downloading for a few dollars. It is called Accidental Christ. Check it out.
 The only actual ritual I attended this convention was a Thelemic one with a twist, presented by Michael Sanborn of Berkeley, CA. His various projects and classes can be explored at www.beastbay.com, which is a Thelemic Webzine. (Please visit his site, I think you will like it. Mr. Sanborn has been a friend of mine for a decade now, and we share a former teacher in Thelemic and Egyptian Magick, Ebony Anpu (Website) Michael Sanborn is a well-known Thelemic Magician and Priest, and his presentation was in the form of an evening ritual meditation based on Tibetan practices. Called The Scaled of the Serpent, the rite lasted under two hours and was accompanied by very intense trance-music by Jack Elder. Banishings and invocations were not only performed, but two members of the audience volunteered to perform the opening and closing ritual banishings.
We learned several Tibetan-style chants and intonations which were very interesting. One thing that one does not always expect at a ritual meditation of this kind is the use of an overhead projecter and transparencies. With these we were shown the chants, and some graphics to inspire and inform us as to the meanings of the ritual practice. Michael was very calm and poised during the entire presentation, and his genial manner was a large part of the success of the rite. Overall it was highly inspiring and I found that we were able to commune with the God of Inspiration and Intellect, Thoth, very well as the result of the ritual. I enjoyed it greatly.
RJ Stewart, author of 36 books and counting including The Underworld Initiation and The Power in the Land, did a presentation-workshop which he called the Magick of Three Sticks. He discussed with a very large assembly of folk about his approach to magickal ritual, which he says is very simple. He prefers a style which uses little or no ritual furniture or tools, and in fact one could even do without the 'three sticks', as many attending learned. Mr. Stewart was perhaps the most eloquent and poised speaker I have had the pleasure to see, and his personal energy gave one to think that he is a born Priest.
(There was no refering to notes or scripts, no plugging of books, no reference to any of his books. He did comment at the end when folks had more questions than there was time that he is hosting a weekend retreat on Faery Magick and Ritual Craft in Berkeley this Spring. Details can be found at his website, www.dreampower.com where he is very accessible by email, uncommon for authors.)
 I think the thing I really enjoyed in Mr. Stewart's workshop was his demonstration of walking meditation, how one can be 'doing magick' by just walking and meditating. As one walks, one can choose to be leaving the ordinary world and entering into the Land of Faery. One can call to the Little People and they will respond, offering guidance or insights as they feel inclined. There was a pleasant matter-of-factness about his style of presentation that put everyone at ease, and there was a lengthy question-and-answer period during which many people asked rather interesting and provocative questions about the Faery Folk and Traditions in Faery. I think this will probably stand as the most profound festival workshop/ritual experience I have had in many years. And it inspired me to examine more closely my own ritual practices, my relationship to the land and Nature, the source of Magick.
As for the rest of the festival, I noted many people from diverse traditions this year, and in fact I would say that Diversity was the main underlying theme of the convention, over all. There were presentations ranging from Sexual Magick Techniques (with live demonstrations!) to open forums on Pagan Christians and People of Color in the Pagan Community. Queer Magick and Queer Tarot were topics that drew interest, as were the Umbanda Ritual for PombaGira. I wish I could have attended all of the lectures and workshops, but there were more than I could manage, and unfortunately some were taking place simultaneously. I nearly had to do a reading on which workshops to attend!
I did go to a panel discussion about alternative forms of divination presented by Thalassa, who heads up a group called Daughters of Divination that hosts the local Tarot Convention here in the Bay Area each year, SF Bay Area Tarot Symposium (SFBATS)airndark@aol.com -( this year the event is in May). On the panel were a half-dozen people, each offering a brief discussion about a form of divination. Lon DuQuette spoke on an amusing form he called Co-een, which turned out to be the practice of flipping a coin! Although amusing and meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, he did illustrate the detail and complexity and seriousness one can inject into nearly any kind of oracular practice.
 There was a man who spoke on bibliomancy using a book of Calvin & Hobbes cartoons, which was a riot. Then a more serious look at the Norse Runes from a woman who proceeded to produce her Palm Pilot device and use her Rune program on the spot! Blending old and new tech, it was great! I managed to get her to beam the program to me after the panel ended.
Then a woman with Shamanic background demonstrated for us a method which involved tossing a decorative ritual carved stick into the air and divining by the way it fell. It had a lot of variation, similar to the round card placement in the Motherpeace tarot deck. She indicated that this method was very ancient, then she showed us one even older - the throwing of Knucklebones. She explained to us how this ancient system worked, where it came from and then proceeded to do a reading for a member of the audience.
Last but not least was a woman from Israel who demonstrated the very ancient method of the Drawing of Lots. This method is similar to Runes, in that it consists of using stones - each with one letter of the Hebrew alphabet on it. Since Hebrew characters each are pictograms and carry their own meanings, many variations can come up in a reading using these stones. There is a lot of ritual and ceremony connected to this practice, and she used a sheepskin as a surface upon which to work. Most readings call for three stones, and there were special ritual preparations to follow in order to do it properly. It was very fascinating, and she obviously took her form of divination quite seriously.
Questions were welcomed from the audience, which I found was the rule in most of the workshops and presentations at the convention. There was an openess and welcoming feeling everywhere I went, and more than ever before I felt like the Pagan community was really coming into it's own in a lot of ways. There were a lot of families, lots of kids, and people of all ages were present. Every kind of tradition and family group was represented, and the networking bulletin board was plastered with notices about impromptu get-togethers and spontaneous rituals and parties. I was glad I went, and next year I will go again!
D. Jewel St. Michel
Web: http://pagan.drak.net/jewel/
Email: venusprime@magiclink.net
Pictured in this review (from Top to Botton)
Lon DuQuette - Luisah Teish - Ravan Grimassi - Alexandra Genetti - Z. Budapest - Robert Anton Wilson - Ralph Metzner
Article Specs
Article ID: 3338
VoxAcct: 66285
Section: festivals
Age Group: Teen
Days Up: 3,183
Times Read: 7,031
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