Column: Convention Season and a Question of Pagan Identity

As winter gives way to spring, we are in the midst of, what I term, “awards season” for Pagans, in other words convention season. Every year, the number of Pagans who attend Pantheacon, Paganicon, ConVocation, Sacred Space or others rises. We go to meet, to see, to be seen, and to discover. We step outside our comfort zone. We observe and participate in rituals that we might not otherwise experience, hear opinions during discussions that reinforce our own core beliefs, and even, if we so dare, discover what repels us.

Column: Against Fascists and Liberals: Radical Pagan Identity

The cobbles outside are slick from a chill September rain, and I’m a bit unsteady on my feet, even with the aid of the large staff of Alder I’d been carrying for several days through the streets of Quimper. Also, I’m inebriated. Pour a libation to Dionysos at a Breton gay bar the night before you intend to climb a sacred mount known to be both a Druidic site as well as hosting likely shrines to Brighid and Maponus, and it’s near impossible not to get drunk. I’m on my seventh beer, and my limit is normally two. I hadn’t bought a single one.