Covering the Con

This weekend is Pantheacon, a long-running convention for modern Pagans. Like most conventions it is filled with talks and activities and the opportunity to network and party with like-minded people. Having a convention that covers Paganism instead of Fantasy/Sci-Fi seems to be novel to the Mercury News who give the usual stranger in a strange land perspective.

“The pagans have invaded San Jose! The city’s going to hell! Well, maybe not. Pagans don’t actually believe in such things. Many of them, however, do believe in ghosts, sprites, fairies and witches. And some of them actually are witches. As of Saturday — the second of the four-day pagan convention — it’s been so far, so good. No one’s been turned into a newt. Yet.” – Dan Reed

Then again, maybe Dan has a reason for the witchy snark according to Cadmus over at the blog Watching Rats Abandon Ship.

“For those that don’t know, Pantheacon is a pagan covention in its second decade of life (though it shows). This is the third time that I’ve been and I always have a good time. That being said, I do find my pagan coreligionists (when I’m not a Buddhist) a bit odd or scary in a geeky sort of way. When a professional geek finds you odd or scary, it is not a good sign…Lots of aging boomers in tiedye and bad hair.”

Are the “aging boomers” pointing to a generation gap in modern Paganism? How do the twenty and thirty-something modern Pagans see the ‘Boomers’ and how do the teens see the other two groups? How much common ground do we have?

Finally, a shout-out to Melissa Gira on my blogroll who is giving a talk at Pantheacon entitled Sacred Whores: A Pagan Sex Workers? Temple.

If I find any other interesting wrap-ups of the convention I’ll post them.

Tags: Neopaganism