We held the rite and festival of Spring (Ostara) at PantheaCon this February on Presidents' Day weekend - 2014.

Ostara is the festival of rising sap, plunging roots, and swelling buds. It heralds the natural springtime beginning of the sacred Year. The days grow longer than the nights. The Goddess of Nature gives birth to the God of the Year. The Goddess dips into a magical pool and transforms into a child once more. She and the young God exchange the joys of childhood.

We brought our magical Henge and gathered to dive deep into the initiatory mystery of renewed life using trance; we called on the Faery spirits of the land to help the Goddess give birth to the new God.

We also had a real treat for attendees: a sneak preview of the new hardcover book Celebrate Wildness - the book is now for sale on this website.

Visit the PantheaCon website. This was fun! We hope you can join us next time!

Pantheacon 2012 (Part 3): Rituals

Below is an extract from a piece written by John Halstead on his site, "The Allergic Pagan", discussing his experiences at PantheaCon:

“Feraferia: A Dance for the Goddess"

This was by far my favorite ritual. It was truly a multi-sensory experience and it was well planned and well executed. It was a seasonal celebratory ritual honoring the god and goddess of the sea, which Feraferia dedicates its Imbolc ritual to. There was incredible music being played by Matt Venuti on the Hang (which you should really check out). There was an interpretive dancer dancing to the music. They made good use of what lighting effects were available. We were offered water from a chalice and berries as a kind of communion. We were anointed with scented oil and aspersed with water. There were statues of the god and the goddess to which we offered candles. There were poles with colored pennants and Fred Adams’ artwork. And there was poetry. They kept us moving. We held hands and danced in a circle. I can only imagine how great it must have been if performed outside (as I believe it usually is). Evoe Kore!

(later in the article, after describing many other rituals)....I went to the Con with the intent of exposing myself to many different traditions and different ritual experiences. I succeeded in that regard. But I just was not able to fully immerse myself in the experience every time. I found the seasonal celebratory Feraferia ritual the most satisfying. It engaged all five senses (without using incense) and the choreography was near perfect. (There is an art to moving people around without any prior instruction.)

Thank you John Halstead!

Feraferia Celebrated Oimec at PantheaCon, Sunday February 19, 2012

Feraferaia (a Love Culture for Wilderness & Celebration of Wildness) offered a dance to the Goddess, an Oimelc/Candlemas rite with the faeries of wild nature at PantheaCon, this year.

For those not familiar, PantheaCon is one of the larger Pagan gatherings out there...

Here was the description of us in the PantheaCon program, derived from Fred Adams' original writings:

"Feraferia - A Dance for the Goddess: Feraferia is nature oriented, poetic tribal Folk and Faerie Lore, festival forms, magic, esoteric religions, erotic systems of spiritual development, ecstasy and vision quest, divinations, enchantments, seasonal and regional nature communion, wild-food gathering information, organic horticulture, nature blending arts and crafts, research into communication between all forms of life and nature, golden feast diet and paradisal life styles. Join Feraferia as we invite the Fay to dance with us in the endless wedding procession of Ouvrania and Kronos, of alpine peaks and cone forests, at it winds through mazes of starlight in the nuptial night of the nameless bride!"

We danced forth the Goddess from the Underworld, pregnant with the new Year God, and entranced the local Fay (faerie) mostly from the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains and the San Francisco Wetlands and Bay, but also from the distant galaxies, to join us in the world between the worlds for a time of magic and revelry...

It was a magical ceremony, complete with candle lit processions, a trance deep into the Underworld, and singing and dancing to honor Amphitrite and Poseidon of the water world, and of course Kore and our own wild selves!