Rev. Crystal's Full Moon Blessings

There are so many wonderful people I got to meet or spend some measure of time with at Pantheacon.  Every year I feel like I meet great people but this year is different because it was around a lot of networking and quality discussions... not just a chance hello or introduction.  Of some of the people that I got to meet, I would like to give a shout out to some that really stuck out to me; Peter Dybing, Star Foster, Jason Pitzl-Waters, T. Thorn Coyle, Luisha Teish, Starhawk and other great people.  

Late night, early morning; up at 7ish to prepare for my 9am.  With about 4 hours of sleep, I got up and got dressed in my professional garb.  The seminar went well and it generated great discussions about Witch Wars, leadership and sustainability.  I enjoyed the seminar and was very pleased by the book sales from the seminar.

After the seminar I spent time shopping, volunteering time at the charity auction, bidding on items in the auction, a book signing in the vendor room and spending time with my friends and family.  Jon decided to stay another night and we spent time hanging out and going to see Pandemoneom perform for a bit.  We spent time laughing and hanging out with our friends in the hotel.  It was so wonderful to just be able to be present in that space and not worry about the demands of the world around us.

The next morning I got up early and went to the Pagan Newswire Collective seminar.  I am very excited about the opportunity to have media that is Pagan centered and what we might be able to build with those resources at our fingertips.  Wonderful things are happening!  In addition, I got to meet Star Foster and Jason Pitzl-Waters.  Very exciting stuff and incredibly awesome people.  I think Jason is a wonderful speaker and very professional in his delivery of information.  Star is vibrant, beautiful and fun.  I thought she had such great energy and it felt like we were old friends.  I look forward to building connections and friendships with both of these great people!

After the seminar I went for my book signing slot, then ate lunch with Jon and hung out in the hotel room.  When it was time to say goodbye to Jon, I had a hard time.  We had so much fun together and much needed bonding time.  After that I went back to shopping, spending time with friends, and hanging out in the live charity auction.  Amber K and Azriel were the auction presenters and Amber K is hilarious!!

We were quite successful at the auction and Kat is the master bidder!  She won a sword, harp and kilt.  Talk about a good time!!

The night ended with a Morrighan ritual done by T. Thorn Coyle and Sharon Knight.  Then off to see Haggis Revenge..... that is a whole other blog in and of itself.

More to come!

There are so many exciting and fun things from Pantheacon this year that I will probably break it up into several posts so that I have a chance to really process all the moments and things that happened.  I had a blast!  Let me first start with saying that and that I met some incredible people and got valuable feedback this year on my presentations and book.  Although it is always scary to write, present and put yourself out there in the public eye; it is a great experience to know that what I am doing can support others in some small ways.  That is the reason that I have always wanted to do this, not because I want the name or recognition (although recognition is nice), it is because I want to be able to support our community in learning what we need to continue to create healthy and productive dynamics with others.  I have been that person coming into the Pagan community and was taken advantage of and hurt.  I have seen others hurt and have hurt others without realizing the ramifications of my actions.  For all of those reasons, I am honored to be able to do this work and write about it for others.

I arrived at the Con on Friday about 12 and we checked in with little lines and got to our rooms to settle in.  After a small hotel room assignment mix up, we were on our way and I was excited to finally be at the event that I look forward to all year long.  My first seminar was at the 3:30 time slot and I thought that it would be a small crowd since people are just arriving and some are still working at that time.  To my surprise, the room was packed!  Thank goodness my husband, friends and other awesome people helped to put out more chairs and support the process.  I was so surprised by the amount of people that I became a little flushed and overwhelmed.  LOL!

The workshop (circle restore; Restorative practices in covens and circles) went very well and it seemed that people were interested, engaged and could relate to the issues at hand within the community.  This was exciting for me since it was validated to confirm that the lack of conflict resolution methods and training in our community has led to such hurtful situations all around.  Everyone participated and I got some great feedback.  I sold some books and it felt as if there was a nice buzz around the types of concepts we could extend into our community.

For the first time, I got to meet Peter Dybing (National First Officer of Covenant of the Goddess) in the workshop.  Peter reached out to me a couple of months ago after buying my book and has been such as awesome supporter for me since then.  He attended the workshop and was able to give me some constructive feedback to support making it even better.  (Thanks Peter!)

It was wonderful to have my friends and Jon there at the workshop to support me.  I felt great about the experience, even though I was so nervous I was sweating.  :)

After the workshop, I got to hang out with everyone, shop in the vendor area, eat dinner with the hubbie and go to the Pomba Gira (I waited all year for this).  We dressed up and went dancing for an hour.  My husband had such a great experience in the Pomba that I spent a lot of time trying to keep him on this side of the plane instead of being ridden all the way by the Umbanda Gods for the first time.  He loved it and I loved seeing him so engaged in the spiritual aspect of himself.  Pcon has a way of doing that for people.

After Pomba, we went to the room, hung out and spent some quality time nursing our feet after almost 2 hours of dancing.  I loved every minute of it.

That was the first day of a wonderful 4 day weekend experience.  More to come.

The last year changed life for me and the family dramatically.  The new year has brought a lot of beautiful things along with some sad moments of realization, understanding and facing of mortality once again.  While there continues to be a lot of adjustment on the parts of almost everyone in our home, there is still a lot to do in the area of healing and adjusting to all the changes that have happened in our lives over the last year and a half.

A year ago my mother died and this past week I have gone to the hospital twice to visit my aunt.  She was in remission from breast cancer and it has returned.  In addition, she is very sick with other issues that are even more pressing than the cancer and the doctors are battling several issues at once.

I won't go into all the gruesome details of my feelings and the reminders of sitting in the hospital with my mother.  Instead I will say that it is a wake up call that the ebb and flow of life's trials are constant and it is not about being able to stay at one place in life for long.  Change is the only constant, right?

I have been working hard at coming back to my spiritual self over the last year and have made great strides in the past several months.  Hypnotherapy is one of the things that has really pushed me beyond the limits that I set myself within.  Once again I am looking at my aunt and thinking that I must prepare to fall back into the faith that I have been rebuilding.  The Gods are guiding me in learning how to love, live and let go.  Some of the hardest lessons I have ever had to learn.

So while I am considering what it means to hope you are not looking at the end of someone you love, I am also putting my faith in overdrive and pushing forward.  I know it is important for me to be present in this process with her and although it is a harsh reminder of the memory of my mother dying, it is also a honor to be there and sharing love when I can.

Finding spirit in the tough times can be one of the biggest and most difficult challenges there are but ones that can also propel us towards understanding things on a whole different level of spiritual connection.