I just finished registering for PCon and have submitted a proposal for one session. I'm only proposing one this year, as I usually end up helping out with a bunch of other stuff, and I'd like to take it slightly easier this year. My current state of achy exhaustion probably has something to do with this, but I'm definitely going to the con because I get to see a lot of folks I only see once a year, and even when things are exhausting and I have car trouble getting down there, I end up having a fantastic time.

This year's proposed session is Living a Celtic Reconstructionist Path, which is in line with the theme of Walking Your Talk. Here's what I submitted:

A spiritual path is not just about belief, it's about daily life and an approach to that life. Join author Erynn Rowan Laurie for a talk on living a CR path, from thoughts on ritual and community to living Celtic virtues and approaching reading, music and food as ways to deepen our connections to the spiritual worlds.

If there's something else that you would really really like to see me present, I might submit another proposal, so let me know!

OBOD Druid Retreat in September

My friends in the Circle of Coll, a local Seattle OBOD group, have asked me to come and teach a workshop at their festival this September out on Anderson Island, in Puget Sound. I agreed, and will be doing a workshop on the three cauldrons, much like the one I taught at Eight Winds a few weeks ago.

There's still time to register if you'd like to go. You can find the information here. Anderson Island is a small island only reachable by ferry. I haven't been there yet but am looking forward to it. It will be a camping festival with a small group and it should be a lot of fun. The retreat will run over the weekend of September 17-19th and my workshop will be on Saturday afternoon.

I had a great time with the ADF folks down at Eight Winds this year. The folks in Sacramento have asked me to come down and visit and I'll try to make it down there this fall sometime if at all possible. I wrote up a few bits over on my LJ about the Eight Winds festival, including some photos from the event. The weather down in the Columbia Gorge was fantastic -- it was the first real summer weather I've had all year. There was sun and warmth and the company and conversations were wonderful. I've been invited to go back again next year when the festival is being held in Tahoe and I've already said I'll be attending. More on that next spring when the event planning is further along.

Eight Winds Festival

The kind folks of ADF Northwest have asked me once again to speak at their Eight Winds Festival this summer. This year's festival will be taking place in the Columbia Gorge in Washington state. It's a beautiful area.

I had a great time at last year's festival, on the Redwood Coast of California.

This year one of the activities I'll be taking part in will be an open conversation with Skip Ellison about ogam. He's the author of a book on ogam that primarily uses the tree ogam paradigm, but which also has really nice illustrations of all the ogam scales from the Book of Ballymote in a convenient and inexpensive package. This should be a really fun and informative discussion, and I've had quite a few folks (including Skip) express some real enthusiasm for the idea.

I'll also be doing other workshops or classes but I haven't firmed that up just yet. I'll be sure to let folks know as soon as I've got class descriptions!

Erynn at PantheaCon

Time once again for the Great Assigning announcement of PantheaCon's official schedule.

The home page for PantheaCon has the official schedule up now. Here's my schedule for the weekend in San Jose:

Saturday, February 13

3:30 - Silicon Valley: Warrior Return Ritual panel

7:00 - San Jose: Constructing CR Ritual

Sunday, February 14

1:30 - San Juan/San Carlos: Immanion Authors panel

7:00 - Santa Clara: Women's Voices in Magic panel

9:00 - Fir: Yes they are! Meeting the Queerest of Gods (backup for Hanuman)

Monday, February 15

1:30 - Fir: Ekklesía Antínoou Lupercalia/Communalia

I'll be there for the entire festival, as usual, and will have 10 copies of my book with me for sale after my sessions, thanks to the generosity of one of my readers. I don't currently have any book signings scheduled, but that could easily change -- I signed up for two of them while I was at the con last year. I may sign up for a reading slot and do ogam readings in the merch room as well. I haven't decided yet. I hope to see many of you there!

The Warrior Return

This past weekend the local schmooze folks held the Warrior Return Ritual for one of our number who returned from Iraq recently. We held our vigil at the house of a friend of mine, who has a yurt temple in the back yard, a hot tub for the dunking, and a goodish sized area for the vigiland to choose from in setting up their "camp".

Having been through the ritual myself as the vigiland last summer, I had a reasonable idea of what to expect, though I knew participating as support staff would be a very different experience than that of vigiland. That supposition turned out to be quite true.

I'm still recovering physically from the overnighter, but that's my usual modus operandi for vigil rituals. Overall, it seemed successful from our end and the vigiland said that morning that we could talk about his experience sometime soon. I really want to do this before PantheaCon, as the schmooze is presenting a panel on the return ritual that will bookend the sending-out ritual from last year. It will be good to be able to discuss it from the perspective of having both performed the vigil and supported the vigil.

Given that I'm still recovering, I'm also still processing my impressions and experiences. By the end of the week I should have something together to share with everyone about this ritual and will be posting it both here and on my LJ. All-nighters are always a bit mind-bending. This one was no exception.