Panmankey

February has become this crazy month for me the last couple of years.  It's almost as good as June-July when it comes to festivals.  As most of you know I hit Pantheacon in San Jose CA every February, and then four days later I hit Convocation in Detroit (or as I like to think of it, my backyard).  This year was no exception of course, and I rocked both festivals.  Sure there were no official Morrison events on the schedule of either festival, but I did get to do two new workshops:  one on ancient Druids, and one on Cerunnous/Green Man/Herne. 

Both workshops were well receieved (on both sides of the country) but the "Horned God of the British Isles" workshop grabbed people by the horns, or so I've been told.  Not to sound like a jackass, but it was one of my better presentations the last couple of years.  It was so much fun to do, especially getting to use a laser pointer and wax philosophical about Old Horn Head.  Just a great workshop to present.  At Pantheacon I had over 100(!!!) people at it on sunday afternoon, which is a really great number.  Convocation isn't nearly as big, but I had a good turnout there too, and no one fell asleep!!  I always like that.

I had low expectations for the Druid workshop, but it went fairly well.  It was certainly longer than I had anticipated (90 minutes both times, and it could have been longer), which was a relief since I was worried I might breeze through it in 50 minutes.  I didn't have the giant crowds for it that I had for the other workshop, but some of that might have been due to timing.  It was in the first block of workshops on friday at Pantheacon, and was on friday again at Convocation.  I always get solid turnouts, so I'm pretty sure I'll be presenting at both festivals next year.

At Convocation I got to do a Horned God Ritual in addition to workshops, and that was fun.  I did a ritual for Pan/Dionysus/Cernunnous/Green Man, and though it ended up being pretty short, I got good feedback from it.  I'm always hesitatnt to plan anything that's going to last very long on saturday night at Convocation.  The Masquarade Ball there has such a hold on people that they'll skip your stuff if it interferes with their opportunity to dance to horrible rap and pop music. I do have to tweak it for future festivals and make it a bit longer, but it was a fun saturday night thing. 

Even more than being able to present stuff, it's the peopel that keep me coming back to festivals year after year.  BIg thanks to Kenny and Anna Klien (be sure to pick up Kenny Klien's new book on the Fairy Realm!) for their friendship and for hanging out with me at Pconn.  You guys rock.  This year I also got ot hang out some with Kenn Day and Selena Fox from Circle.  Somewhere there's a picture of me kissing Selena floating around the internet, I hope I get a copy of it soon.  Big thanks goes to everyone who shared their scotch and/or absinthe with me at both festivals.  I wonder what a sober friday night would feel like at a Pagan festival?  I hope I never find out.

To all of you who bought Horned God books, thanks!!!  It made travelling a lot easier on my pocketbook this spring.  I'm sorry about the small print in the books, that will be fixed in the next edition.  For those of you wanting a book with large print, those are coming.  Drop me an email and I'll let you know how to get one sooner than later. 

New rule too, I'm going to try writing in this thing every monday from now on.  I'm sure I'll fail, but enough people asked about the blog last month that I think it's something I need to do.  I should have a lot of festivals and things on the agenda this spring/summer, and it should all shake it in the next month or so.  I'll probably be at Starwood this year, and at Brushwood's SummerFest.  I'm possibly going to do an event at Circle Sanctuary too, and lots and lots of Pagan Pride Days.

Happy Springtime!
-jason