Pantheacon, Sunday
Feb. 19th, 2007 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreWoke up late so I missed the first panel. Went to the Pirates and Pagans, which was nicely fluffy.
I'd been torn about several panels at 1:30, so I decided to see one by Isaac Bonewits, whom I'd heard about, but never read or seen. I found him quite delightful. I went down to the dealer's room afterward to buy one of his books, only to find him sitting in a bookstore's area signing.
He'd mentioned Irish druidism, so I told him that my first wedding had been on Midsummer, and we'd had to delay a bit because the druids were out in force. Isaac hadn't known that you can't get married outdoors in Ireland (which may have, but probably hasn't, changed since then). And I mentioned that we exchanged our vows over the stone of destiny there, and that my husband had died five months later. To which his response was, "Whoa."
My stock line about that is never to exchange your vows over the stone of destiny if you have a bad one, but Isaac said something that got me thinking about it in a completely different light, one that takes away some of the feelings of personal guilt. If nothing else, going to Pantheacon was worth that transformative experience.
The 3:30 time slot, well, I was running late for a panel that wasn't supposed to be closed if you arrived late -- except that it was. So I went down and ate instead, and thought about everything that had happened. I talked to someone about my recent experience, and they said, "maybe it was about him [Richard], not you." While that was a good point (and actually helpful), there was no way it wasn't also about me. (There's reasons I say that not because of vanity or ego, but simply because of circumstance that's way too much TMI for a public journal entry. Some of y'all know the story, though).
Rick and I stuck together the rest of the night. We went to go see a Greco-Egyptian guy speak about his syncretic religion. Normally, I don't like the Reese's peanut butter cup approach, but this guy was very well educated and, even though his faith wasn't my cuppa, his serious approach to it was something I found incredibly interesting. I'll probably eventually get his book.
At nine, we went to see something I'd been waiting for, the Hawai'ian kahuna talk about healing. He mentioned a bunch of things, including the fact that healing generally consisted of sending the energy back to where it came from, especially if someone had wished us ill. We sat in birthday order (I sat next to someone with my birthday, too, which was cool). He talked about the history, and about how his family knowledge predates the ali'i, which made me sit up and take notes.
At 11, we went to the Discordian time travel ritual, which was delightfully silly. It was also a perfect wrapup to the con. Everyone filled out requests to change the past, and then put it into the input device (a shredder). Perfect!
Sleep now. :)
I'd been torn about several panels at 1:30, so I decided to see one by Isaac Bonewits, whom I'd heard about, but never read or seen. I found him quite delightful. I went down to the dealer's room afterward to buy one of his books, only to find him sitting in a bookstore's area signing.
He'd mentioned Irish druidism, so I told him that my first wedding had been on Midsummer, and we'd had to delay a bit because the druids were out in force. Isaac hadn't known that you can't get married outdoors in Ireland (which may have, but probably hasn't, changed since then). And I mentioned that we exchanged our vows over the stone of destiny there, and that my husband had died five months later. To which his response was, "Whoa."
My stock line about that is never to exchange your vows over the stone of destiny if you have a bad one, but Isaac said something that got me thinking about it in a completely different light, one that takes away some of the feelings of personal guilt. If nothing else, going to Pantheacon was worth that transformative experience.
The 3:30 time slot, well, I was running late for a panel that wasn't supposed to be closed if you arrived late -- except that it was. So I went down and ate instead, and thought about everything that had happened. I talked to someone about my recent experience, and they said, "maybe it was about him [Richard], not you." While that was a good point (and actually helpful), there was no way it wasn't also about me. (There's reasons I say that not because of vanity or ego, but simply because of circumstance that's way too much TMI for a public journal entry. Some of y'all know the story, though).
Rick and I stuck together the rest of the night. We went to go see a Greco-Egyptian guy speak about his syncretic religion. Normally, I don't like the Reese's peanut butter cup approach, but this guy was very well educated and, even though his faith wasn't my cuppa, his serious approach to it was something I found incredibly interesting. I'll probably eventually get his book.
At nine, we went to see something I'd been waiting for, the Hawai'ian kahuna talk about healing. He mentioned a bunch of things, including the fact that healing generally consisted of sending the energy back to where it came from, especially if someone had wished us ill. We sat in birthday order (I sat next to someone with my birthday, too, which was cool). He talked about the history, and about how his family knowledge predates the ali'i, which made me sit up and take notes.
At 11, we went to the Discordian time travel ritual, which was delightfully silly. It was also a perfect wrapup to the con. Everyone filled out requests to change the past, and then put it into the input device (a shredder). Perfect!
Sleep now. :)