For some years now, though I am assured it was not from the first year, it might have been the third year or even the second, I have been producing a hospitality suite at PantheaCon.  It started out simply enough, a generally big for contributions from initiates of the NROOGD (New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn) this group of course, having nothing whatsoever to do with the Golden Dawn.  Over the years as endeavor has grown to include the Covenant of the Goddess, and the New Wiccan Church.  Now days, we no longer rely on individuals’ donations.  Rather, each of these organizations donates a fixed sum of money.  With these funds we have become known for our mediocre, but filling, food, and excellent conversation.  This year was no exception! 

But I digress before I even start.  PantheaCon is a large and steadily growing convention of neo Pagans; cross between a religious conference, rock concert, academic conference, and Marti Gras, where the young women walk around in diaphanous nothing accumulating material, glitz, and the jangles with age and weight, and the men all seem to start as pirates, the latest trendy outer space rage, or experiments in cross dressing, generally graduating to jeans and T shirts with the same age and weight.  It’s serious eye candy no matter what your preference… and it all walks through the suite at some time or another during the Con.  A friend once asked a conservative Christian minister to call host the workshop with him warning him as well as he could about what he might encounter at the con.  Later the gentleman was reported to say, ” I didn’t see anything there that I didn’t see in the sixties and I think I might even have seen some of the same people.”

PantheaCon is produced by Glenn Turner and a dedicated staff that have been working together pretty much since the first con. Despite her best efforts to keep it down in size the Con continues to grow slowly but inexorably.  This year we understand that it reached over 2,300 registered.  This means that the hotel staff are setting up temporary fast food and coffee stands in order to handle the hungry masses, and that workshops are almost guaranteed to be maxed out.  Over the last few years, it has become a lottery to get a room in the hotel, and even the overflow hotels are filling to capacity.  This year the workshops, which historically have always ended about dinnertime, continued into the late evening in order to assure that most presenters who applied had an opportunity to present their programs.

Due to attendance some of the more popular programs tended to fill up and I did hear mumblings that some doors closed up to 15 minutes prior to presentation time due to room caps (though there was always something else to wander over to), and walking through the halls during a break in programing was… interesting to say the least.  I tried it once, to go to the Hindu Pagan workshop.  It took me an hour to get back to the room, yes really!  I’d get two feet and someone would stop me to talk.  When I finally made it to the elevators there was another wait.  All I can say is that it was a really good thing I didn’t have to get to a bathroom!  In the hotel’s defense, I am sure that the elevators work just fine when the hotel is not supporting about twice its capacity in occupancy.  

I must admit though, that slipping my chains and braving the crowd was really worth it to hear the discussion of how much Hinduism and our own neo Pagan practices have in common and how much we can be of aide to one another.   At one point it was mentioned that while the Hindus had such a wonderful temple and political structure we actually had more public face time on such shows as Oprah.  At that juncture Mihir Meghani from the Hindu American Foundation turned to Jason Pitzel-Waters and said, “I’ll trade you three temples for one Oprah”.  When asked what we need to do to get organized Mihir hit the nail and the sore spot on the head when he said “raise money”.  While their demographic is well suited for just that ours is anything but.

And now to return to a Prisoner’s Dilemma.   As the crush gets larger each year more and more pressure is placed on the suites to act as a rest and refuge, and place to visit old friends and a place to tank up a bit between the harrowing episodes of the feeding frenzy.  This means that more food and drink are needed and must be continually replenished, and the suite must be cleaned regularly.   Between my fear of being terminally lost in the hoard outside of the suite door and the needs of the suite itself I decided to let the Con come to me as it would; and it did.   At one point my old coven which had assembled off site for dinner, came to the suite and visited me bringing lamb and salad. Old friends and new Kept me as busy as I cared to be.

This year, rather than compete with the mass of proposals for presentations our groups decided to host our own presenters.  We had a Children’s program from an NWC elder,  in which the participants made magical belts of protection for themselves, a very interesting presentation by a professional Linguist and NWC elder, on the origins of magical practice and thought in the British Isles going way back in history, following  linguistic clues left by ancient people; a presentation on the difficulties of culture clash and communication between our technical, corporate culture and indigenous people still living in traditional ways, by two interfaith representatives from CoG, a discussion of the political climate and state of First Nations peoples in Canada and the US and how we, as pagans, can support them without being invasive; and a great presentation by yet another professional and elder in NWC on the Science of Quantum Mechanics, and the Craft.  The Suite hosted two authors at special receptions this year as well; Philip Heselton, from England, and Ed Fitch, one of the founders of American Gardnerian Craft.  

While in past years there was generally some time between ten in the morning and lunch to rest and two and four in the afternoon when the suite was pretty empty, such was definitely not the case this year.  There were always a few folks gathered to visit, nosh, and just rest and breath before diving back into the frey.   All of our workshops were very well attended by young and old alike. In fact we could not have taken in many more for any of the workshops and our rapidly becoming annual Nekked Necktie Ritual, by our NROOGD elders was downright crowded (as was the huge tub afterward or so rumor would have it). Both CoG and NWC took advantage of the fact that out-of-town members were present to hold meetings. 

Specifically because we are not a “party” suite we generally get drop-ins by such folks as Margo Adler, Selena Fox, Glenn Turner, and others who have been around long enough to be really fun to listen to and love to chat and decompress from the rigors of the Con.   This year the Gardnerian folks had the rather historic opportunity to speak at length with some of the founding members of the American branch of the tradition as well as Philip Heselton from the UK.  I really wish that I could tell you about it but then…well you know. 

I’d quit this responsibility and let someone else take over if only I could find someone dumb…er kind enough to do so, but the only two that ever did take this chore on had the good sense never to offer again.  And then there is the story of the prisoner that was released from Folsom many years ago after spending most of his adult life there.   He left the prison and immediately robbed a liquor store a few blocks away at gun point.  When asked why –  he said he couldn’t stand it outside. The judge granted his wish.   I suppose that is my problem.  I’ve gotten so used to letting the Con come to me that I don’t think I’d have it any other way now.   I’ve just gotten too spoiled in my gilded cage.

R Watcher