(no subject)

Tonight is going quickly...very quickly. Around 230, I looked at the clock, thinking i might have been 1230 at the latest. I was wrong.

So Saturday was Baltimore Pagan Pride...I was originally going to get there at 8am and set up the grove's table...but then as of Friday night, Caryn and Will were able to do it after all and told me to show up whenever. I also thought I was going to be tablesitting for the Interfaith Fairness Coalition...but they didn't need me. So I mostly got to spend a nice relaxing day wandering around the area where the event was held...despite not getting there til about 1pm (once I found out that I didn't need to be there at 8, I planned to get there around 10 but kept getting sidetracked at the house, starting with sleeping til 940.)

There was a small fire performance group there, and they were just tickled to have me join in and ilght up...I haven't spun in far too long, so I was just as happy to do so and during the day, they had a bunch of practice poi for people to play with...I did so a good bit, and as a result, I relearned the three-beat weave which I knew how to do back when I started spinning, but lost it at some point. I can do it again...woohoo. chironcentaur also picked up some poi and started playing with them and despite ongoing reluctance and protesting that she could never do such a thing, seems to be interested enough to want to learn...apparently on Saturday night, she was digging around in boxes and found Dominic's poi and started playing with them...I must say, I'm impressed...she's picked up butterflies a lot faster than I ever did, and has just about got windmills. Amazingly enough, I've been able to explain a lot of the mechanics of the moves, and even see problems...I never thought I could even begin to help someone learn to spin poi....though, I'm still a highly rudimentary teacher (I can spin and demonstrate action but for the life of me can't figure out how to explain most stuff. Staff on the other hand is a completely different story. Oh, and I met someone who is interested in learning staff, she might be getting ahold of me for that.) On top of all that, I was quite happy because I got to see Kate from PDF, who I haven't seen in at least a year.

The main irritation of the day involved this new guy. who just started showing up at the grove the other week- has been there twice so far maybe? Once or twice...anyway, he was there last week for our ritual planning and decide that he needed to give Gavin some herbs that he's decided are associated with Hermes (I found this out when I reached into my bag later in the day and lo! There was a bag of dried Valerian...apparently she put it there for safekeeping. I later found out that there was also Mandrake. Okay...it's baffled her too.)

So anyway, I guess he also decided that he wanted to demonstrate knowledge by talking about how Hermes and Hekate are similar in some ways and that they both figure into the Persephone myth...which is all well and good because it's true. But as well, he wanted to talk about how Hekate is the Maiden Mother and Crone triple goddess...he'd also done this last week at the grove, the topic was quickly dropped because we were talking about the ritual and this was unrelated and well, because it's not really true.

Apparently, he wanted to continue the discussion. So he decided to bring a book along with him and uh, "prove" this to us. Gavin was standing beside him, looking at the book, and had a slightly horrified look on her face...I maneuvered around and got a look at the cover...dude was trying to prove his point with a DJ Conway book (Maiden, Mother, Crone was the book.) *Headdesk*

When we informed him that she was at some times depicted with three faces, or in reference to three-way crossroads but that was not the same as the "Maiden Mother Crone" idea, he was suddenly all "Oh that was what I was really saying."

The conversation didn't last very long, but had it gone on, my next words would have been "Sorry, I just can't continue a discussion where the opposition's only support comes from DJ Conway." Yeah...Hesiod and Homer versus a new-agey floof-bat who gets all her "info" from Barbara Walker and Robert Graves...who's gonna win? Bitch, please.

Also in the middle of that, tried to tell us that Demeter and Hestia were the same goddess.

Whaaaaaat????

Oh, and for the record, we were talking specifically about traditional depictions in ancient times, not about modern skewings.

(Same guy was also trying to say last week that one cannot be a "serious pagan" if one sticks to a single culture or religious practice...in other words, is not "eclectic". Wow, I haven't encountered that attitude that I recall since I was living in Lancaster.
Being monopantheonic- I'm reasonably sure that I just invented a new word here. searching it on Google yields no results.- and definitely not eclectic, but very serious about my religion, I take a rather large issue with that.)

And in other news, the universe has succeeded in amusing me through non-coincidence...

Last week I read Chronicle Of A Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was rather excellent. I have since started In Evil Hour by the same, but have not yet gotten very far.

(no subject)

Does anyone know where I could buy chain weight for curtains?

At pagan pride day (and people also have int eh past at Playa Del Puego), I've seen people with these big fabric squares, their corners lined with chain weight, and they're basically twirled around like flags, the weights allow this to work without additional structure....the visual effect is that of a fan dance with really huge fans and with the right material, it's amazingly cool.