Chaos Attraction

Pantheacon, Day Three

2014-02-16, 9:38 a.m.

Pantheacon, Day Three:

I started out Sunday morning by going to �The Magpie Oracle.� This was done by a lady with a master�s degree from England in divination�seriously, that exists! She�s done a few decks and studied Lenormand, which has become trendy for some reason, especially this year at the con. She also created the Magpie Oracle, which is a tin of charms picked out to represent the Lenormand deck images. I think that's a nifty idea, and while it looks expensive on the website (I got it for cheaper in person, I must admit), I must point out that buying tons of charms is really expensive, so I think the oracle is reasonably priced for that. (I'm now seriously pondering taking that project apart and using those for oracle devices.)

She also designs free printed out sheets that you can throw the charms onto for divination on her website. Mostly her talk was about divination with anything you have on you, like emptying out your purse and picking out five objects and laying them out into a cross formation. I emptied out my knitting bag and used a pair of scissors, a crochet hook, a row counter, a ruler, and sticky tabs�and came out with that I measure things too much, need to focus on bookmarking the future, and need to hook myself out/cut myself free from things. I wish Merry had woken up in time for this one, she would have loved it. I did.

I followed this up by going to Tarot Reading Circle, which I enjoyed again like I did last time. I can�t recall much about the divination so much, will have to look at home for the cards I briefly photographed. I met Merry and Greg briefly during lunch and then she went with me to see �Making Rituals That Matter." I liked Starhawk's take on how rituals need to have a purpose, like writing a screenplay (which she is doing lately), but then it kinda drifted off into doing some vague impromptu rain ritual�I don�t know what was up with that so much. Ah well.

After that was kind of a disappointing hour. I was planning on skipping the second oracular seidh (this one at least limited the number of people trying to get in) because finally, SOMEONE was doing a lesson on how to do palm reading. I desperately want to learn how to do this by reading the lines on hands, but when I�ve attempted to get a palm reading in the past, all anyone will do is �read my energy.� Which leads to some of the vaguest BS readings ever, so I scorn this. I tend to believe that divination should be based on some concrete something like props, dammit. So first the instructor showed up late to the point where they weren�t sure she�d show up at all. Then I tried to run down the hall to get into the seidh�.just as they gave out the last two tickets and closed it. DAMMIT. Then I went back to the palm reading room and the instructor showed up, but�.I realize just how funny this sounds, but she was the most �hippie-dippie� (emphasis on DIPPIE) person I�ve ever seen at Pcon. And she immediately started chattering on about READING YOUR ENERGY, just like they do at Berkeley Psychic Institute, which I was deeply unimpressed at before. No hand lines, no knowledge, just making up shit. I ended up walking the hell out in a rage quit. I ended up in a Stitch and Bitch suite party instead.

After that, I met up with Merry in the hall and accompanied her up the elevators (note: the elevators at the con are godawful to get anywhere in due to demand, and they will not let you use the stairs under any circumstances) to the Llewellyn suite to hear tales of haunted New Orleans. This was done by a Big Name Pagan and his live-in girlfriend and book co-author. Anyway, the stories were pretty funny/disturbing. They live in a haunted house next to a graveyard and apparently every time someone comes to visit, they yell at them to NOT TOUCH ANYTHING IN THE GRAVEYARD. And then they do, and then either they find someone�s dessicated foot or their kid suddenly needs a tetanus shot from across the country. We also got to hear the story of the LaLaurie mansion, site of many gruesome killings of slaves during scientific experiments. Nicolas Cage bought the house at some point without having heard the story, then he went on a New Orleans ghost tour�they didn�t want to tell him but he insisted. He didn�t move in after that. So that was a good one.

Merry took me to a friend of hers (who I apparently went to college with, but didn�t remember her) to talk to her about getting a custom pouch belt made next month, and then we split once again. I went to a workshop on The Magic of Writing with Taylor Ellwood, which I really liked. After that there was a special bonus event��Tarot Rumba Lounge,� in which you could play with decks and she�d give a brief presentation on the tarot symposium that she runs every year in August. I am considering going, though it�s shorter/more expensive than this one. I ended up hanging out in that room until almost 1 a.m. listening to the stragglers talk. I ended up figuring that I should go to bed at that point and stop trying to hang out with the �cool kids,� but since I didn�t freaking sleep at all that night, maybe I should have stayed up.


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