I’m at Summer Magick Fest, an earth-based spirituality convention with rituals, workshops, and community. I haven’t attended a hotel Pagan event since PantheaCon in 2012, and Summer Magick Fest brings back memories.
Like PantheaCon in San Jose, CA, Summer Magick Fest is DoubleTree by Hilton, but this is the first Summer Magick Fest, and it’s a much smaller event in a much smaller hotel. Still, it’s perfect; it’s just the right size and has everything one expects in a hotel plus some unexpected great extras.
Summer Magick Fest is not comparable to PantheaCon, which attracted hundreds of Pagans from all over the country. It was my favourite way to see friends and acquaintances I didn’t regularly get to see. PantheaCon also had a busy program of workshops, panels, rituals, plus hospitality suites hosted by various groups. After 26 years, PantheaCon came to an end in 2020.
PantheaCon began as a small, local festival, so, who knows, maybe Summer Magick Fest will grow to become one of the biggest and most popular hotel Pagan events. For now, I’m enjoying being away in a comfortable hotel surrounded by magickal friends and acquaintances, old and new. We’re having meals together, shopping at a nearby metaphysical store, rehearsing for ritual, and sitting around late at night telling stories, eating chocolate, and sipping Aphrodite’s Cordial.
My friend and coven-mate, Mia, a Priestess and Life Coach, and I arrived on Wednesday during the early evening, but Summer Magick Fest officially began yesterday (Thursday) and runs through Sunday morning. Headliners include Yeshe Matthews of the Mt Shasta Goddess Temple, Belladonna Laveau and Dusty Dionne of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, Ivo Dominguez, Jr. of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, and Orion Foxwood of the House of Brigh.
I played a role in the opening ritual as part of the Mt Shasta Goddess Temple Priestesses and along with the Summer Magick organisers. The theme was Awakening, and it was fantastic to be in a large ritual once again. It was a beautiful and moving opening ritual. I also have a role in the main ritual, Hekate’s Summer Devotional, and I’m offering tarot readings.
I didn’t attend any workshops yesterday and opted to rest and spend time with people, but I am looking forward to workshops today and tomorrow. My schedule includes Weather Magick and Trance Methods For Spirit Work, two workshops with Ivo Dominguez Jr., Cultivating the Lotus Heart with Yeshe Matthews, and Astrology to Save Your Life with Aequitas, as well as a Druid Summer Solstice Ritual. I will also revisit the Magickal Marketplace; I’ve already bought a rattle from Dancing Wood.
