Pagan Federation Wessex Conference 2008

 Pagan Federation Conference & Masked Ball 

Glastonbury April 2008

This year’s conference surpassed itself once more. Over the last 3 years, we have been privileged to host some of the most influential and famous pagan speakers and writers at our conference, and this year was no exception.

After Ann’s simple yet beautiful blessing for the day, we welcomed Damh the Bard to the stage. I say to the stage, but he didn’t actually stand on it, preferring a more informal, ‘among the audience’ approach. Damh’s talk focussed on the creative quest, the bardic search for inspiration and ways of bringing more inspiration into your life. He began with a brief history, how he got to where he is, from sneaky peeks at "The Devil Rides Out" from the top of his parent’s stairs, aged 10, via the Prediction book club and experimenting with Hermetic magic, to finding OBOD and his spiritual home.

Damh’s talk became much more practical after this, including visualisation, the funniest adaptation of the story of Taliesin’s initiation by Cerridwen I have ever seen, performed by Damh, two friends, and a volunteer from the audience, and an exercise to awaken the senses that will be of great help to anyone trying to experience nature, not just those seeking inspiration.

Mystery Woman behind the mask

Owen is an academic and has written and researched many books on pagan theme .His latest, about the spread of grimoires, leading to the democratisation of magical practise around the world, was the theme of the talk. He made a hesitant start, which was broken by a brave audience member, for whom I was very grateful, asking “What is a Grimoire?” Personally I had a fair idea of what a grimoire was, but had only encountered them in fiction.

Owen’s definition: that it is a book of magic containing spirit conjurations along with other information such as healing charms, charms against theft, and instructions for finding hidden treasure made the rest of the talk much more informative. I think it also led Owen to reassess his audience and explain a lot more along the way, and opened the floor for others to ask questions too, again, thanks to the anonymous young woman at the back!

After a nervous start, then, Dr Owen warmed to his audience and subject. He gave a wealth of information, I wrote 5 pages of notes! The most fascinating part of the whole exotic history was the story of William Lowender Lawrence, a.k.a. Professor DeLawrence, who was certainly a colourful character and was responsible for much of the spread of the 6^th and 7^th books of Moses. These part-magician, part-charlatan characters crop up time and again in pagan history. For anyone wanting to find out more about grimoire’s, Dr Owen Davies’ book will be published next year, and there are websites with a lot more information, including the texts themselves, such as http://www.esotericarchives.com/

Blew & Sally as Green Lady & Green Man

John Chidlow stood up to make a request for volunteers for PF Community services. Please check Pagan Dawn or the PF website for more information.

“I seek to understand how I can better work with the Gods in all my practice, in doing that I express my devotion.” “Every penny we spend, every thought, every word makes a difference.”

The ethics Emma discussed focussed on human relationships as well as environmental impact. She also talked about her work with Honouring the Ancient Dead, showing that all human remains, not just Christian, should be treated with respect.

Gavin Bone, Janet Farrar & Adrian

After such a dynamic and moving start, they successfully lightened the mood with a series of very funny anecdotes. Through the banter, stories and fun they also gave us the benefit of their many years experience practising magic.

After evening meal break, came what for me was the highlight of the day – Damh the Bard’s musical performance. 

Some revellers at the Ball

He played a mixture of old favourites (it was my table singing along loudest, sorry!) and introducing three tracks from his new album Cauldron Born (yes, I did buy it from his stall, it’s brilliant, one of his best!).  The performance lived up to expectations, as did the masks and costumes some people had changed into for the masked ball.

 The Dolmen

The Dolmen raised both volume and tempo, getting us all up to dance. I bought one of their albums to see what the music was like before seeing them. The album was good, rocky folk, sounding a lot like the Levellers, but it did not go half way to prepare me for the quality of the live performance!I don’t think anyone was not at least tapping their toes. If you can, get yourself to a Damh the Bard, or a Dolmen concert, or preferably, both!

Thank you Adrian, and all the volunteers for making this another very successful and enjoyable conference, and here’s looking forward to April 2009 for the next one!

- Catherine Silverbirch, RC Wilts & NW Hants