Family Wiccan Traditions International, Inc.

This was my fifth adventure to Pantheacon, I think. The years start to meld together after a while but each year has been full of adventures and lessons. This year was very much the same but I entered it facing different circumstances than ever before. My mother was in a unforeseen accident on January 13^th and crossed over on January 29^th, leaving my family in a state of grief and shock. Picking up and preparing for Pantheacon this year felt like the impossible task.

The night before leaving home Michael Cheiron arrived and it was nice to have a companion on this journey. We finished preparing and the next morning we were off to the Con in San Jose, California. We arrived to the hotel and walked into a lobby of people wearing pentacles and I knew we had made it.

We were able to immediately meet up with Jenna and Hoi Sum at the hotel, checked in and got our passes. One of the first things we did after getting settled into the room was go to the vending room and see all the goodies that you can’t see all year.

I don’t know how many vendors were there but it was a heavenly array of Pagan shopping in there. We came to a booth where an artist was selling some of her paintings and prints, some of which were on an upcoming tarot deck. My coven sister pointed out a picture with a phoenix and I was going to get it in memory of my mom and my family coven. While the artist was looking for the print I stumbled on another picture that brought me to tears. It was a picture of a phoenix rising and the front of it’s body was the image of a woman. When I looked at the title it was the death card in the tarot deck. I knew it was the one I was suppose to get. It was an emotional introduction to the weekend ahead.

The schedules were so packed that it felt impossible to choose during certain time frames and I ended up going to the pomba gira event that night with another coven sister. We danced and tranced for an hour and a half, feeling numb yet alive afterwards. The days and nights were packed with seminars, friends, laughs and moments of crying.

Both of my presentations went well and were pretty well attended. I laughed at myself when one of the attendees asked me what the name of my book was and I couldn’t remember. That tells you how distracted I have been. So my handy dandy coven sister wrote it on a piece of paper for the author’s panel I was going to so I wouldn’t forget. LOL!!

I was able to be blessed with performing an elevation for Jenna on Sunday night along side Michael, Kathryn, Hoi Sum and Jade. It was a special and powerful ritual with no tools but a lot of energy and love.

It was truly great to bond with Michael, Hoi Sum and Jenna at the con and spend some quality time with FWTI folks. In spite of all the pain I am dealing with inside, it was a great trip full of love and support. I am very grateful to Kathryn, Jade, Del, Jenna, Hoi Sum and Michael for supporting me there and showing me much family love. I hope to share that magical space with others in 2012!

Blessed Be!!