If you have been following this blog you will be aware that on November 19^th, the American Academy of Religion, one of the world’s biggest religious studies organizations, held its annual five day convention in San Francisco in conjunction with the Society of Biblical Literature.  Apparently it is a usual occurrence for these two power houses of religious information to team up and in this case the two organizations drew a total registration of something over ten thousand attendees among which were Greg, our intrepid photographer and reporter, and yours truly.The cost of registration is really very reasonable for the amount to information available during this five day event – thousands of pannels and presentations.  The real cost involved is food and lodging.  The registration is:

I delight in the huge number of considerations allowed.  Membership in this organization is only $55 a year.  They generally don’t consider that anyone else might even be interested in attending and so no early bird registration for non-members is available.

Why, you are probably asking yourself, would any of this be of interest to me, a cast in concrete Pagan practitioner?  Well aside from the fact that they have a Pagan tract and that it is growing, and that there are some very nice receptions available on Friday and Saturday evenings. You might be surprised to learn just how many of our Pagan scholars are involved with and participate in the AAR.  Patrick McCollum and his wife Barbara are both long time active members, along with Chaz Clifton, Sabina Magliocco, Macha Nightmare, Carolyn Tully, Shawn Arthur, Wendy Griffin, many of the Cherry Hill staff, and a host of others who are not quite so widely known within our larger community.  Ten years ago when they last came to San Francisco, many Pagan Scholars and non-scholars alike attended and lobbied for a Pagan tract.  Nothing on Paganism was then available and the few papers submitted were on ancient Goddess worship.  Perhaps they were just waiting to see if Neo-Paganism was a passing fancy or real religion.  Apparently they have decided that it will be around long enough to make study worthwhile.  Woot!! We’ve made it.  We now have validity as real religion…at least according to the AAR.

Shawn Arthur

Starhawk

And, in my opinion, they definitely need our support.  This year most of the presentations in the Pagan tract were..ahum…how to say this politely, somewhat behind the curve, putting out information that we covered here months ago.  They were pretty lame in some cases and in some sadly lacking in decent statistics (the responsibility for which we must take at least partial blame).   We need to be there and available both to correct wrong information and to help with better and more current information.

Bron Taylor - author of Dark Green Religion

Aside from this however, there are a huge number of talks, panels, and workshops that would delight any true Pagan heart.  There was an interesting presentation on curse tablets in the first century Roman Empire, and plenty of room for discussion as to whether the conclusions were valid.  There was an excellent presentation on the African Diasporic Religions which, according to one attendee who should know, was both accurate and informative.  Strangely enough, some of the most interesting panels that I attended were being sponsored by the SBL.  Who’d a thought?!

Want books?  I’ve never seen so many books on religion in my life all gathered into one spot.  These were all academic books.  Of course all of the presenters who had written books had them there under the Publisher’s imprint.  Shambala Books was there as probably the only non-Christian or university press of the many publishing companies that showed up.

I sat in on an early secession discussing the inclusion of animals in religion and religious thought which on the surface sounds ridiculous but actually aimed at a more holistic approach to the spiritual.  It covered the deep need for people to have companions and the impact that those animals are having on the environment. These were definitely pro “non-human” folks who were very down to Earth in their approach to the inclusion of our “non-human” companions

This term “non-human” is apparently the new buzz word for animals (in the most totally correct political sense of course), because I heard it constantly during the five days I was in attendance.  I do love new buzz words don’t you?

There was an indigenous tract and a small but growing interfaith tract which I hope to see more of in Chicago.   Does anyone have room for a guest next year?  I am now on a couple of mailing lists which have already supplied some critical information in the interfaith work that I am doing with the indigenous populations in Central and South America. There are other issues that this year’s attendance brought up as well and I will be discussing these on their own, more in depth articles along with co-authors as the month progresses, but I cannot encourage your attendance enough should the opportunity present itself.   If the AAR comes anywhere near you and you have the where-with-all to go, please do.   You will find it interesting, stimulating, frustrating and fun!

Other Pagan AAR Coverage:

Circling Alone: Paganism’s Solitary Eclectic Future?

What I did – and did not do – at the American Academy of Religion 2011 annual meeting in San Francisco

Ægypt in Northern California: Isis Oasis

Rachael Watcher for PNC Bay Area