Introducing Pantheacon

I spent the U.S. Presidents Day weekend (especially long for me, since I got both Friday and Monday off of work) attending Pantheacon at a hotel in San Jose, CA—only about seven miles from my home in Sunnyvale.

I’m not sure how to describe Pantheacon to folks who know nothing about it.  It’s a four-day convention…and I think I’ll say that its focus is contemporary American Paganism.  If that sounds puzzling, superficial, or immoral to you, I’ll add the word “religious”:  American Religious Paganism.  If you’re the type who say’s you’re “spiritual” not “religious”…then let’s say “American Pagan Spirituality” or something.

Pantheacon (this was its 19^th year) has described itself thus:  “We are a conference for Pagans, Heathens, Indigenous Non-European and many of diverse beliefs that occurs annually over President’s Day weekend. Well over 2000 people attend more than 200 presentations that range from rituals to workshops and from classes to concerts.”

I arrived on Friday afternoon, after lunch.  My wife also attended.  Every day we drove over, spent part or all of the day there, and returned home to sleep.  We left finally around 4 p.m. Monday afternoon.  I guess that’s only three days, elapsed.

I’m pretty sure I’ve at least dropped by to visit friends attending this conference over the past 19 years.  However, I can’t swear I actually attended any workshops until 2011, when I dropped in long enough to watch a documentary and have dinner with friends.  Last year, as far as I know, was the first year I more or less attended the entire weekend.  My main memory of last year, however, is of looking for everyone there who I had met previously only on Facebook—which turned out to be a sizeable number of people!

This year I must have been wandering the hallways at totally different times.  I didn’t meet any “Facebook People.”  And whereas in 2011 the hospitality suites were crammed with people, this year whenever I went to the suites, the crowd was sparse.

I’m planning to spend some time now summarizing the events I experienced.  We’ll see how far I get!