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UK Pagan Conference Set for November 2003

The Pagan Federation Conference 2003
Saturday 29th November, Fairfield Halls, Croydon

For those looking for something totally different to do Thanksgiving weekend this year, there's the Pagan Federation Conference to be help in Croydon in Surry England. This year the themes are: Around the Pagan World and Elements of Ritual

Important Speakers already confirmed:

Margot Adler - leading US Pagan Priestess
Mike Pitts - on Stonehenge and Avebury
Richard Rudgeley - on the birth of spirituality
Juliette Wood - Margaret Murray and the revival of Wicca
Aaron Watson - on multi-sensory experience and ritual at prehistoric monuments.

with workshops on Elements of Ritual by

Prudence Jones - Astrology and Ritual
Kate and Tim Ward - the roles of the Priest and Priestess
Dr Melvyn Willin - Music in Ritual

As in past years you too can contribute to

The Great Debate on a subject of importance to all Pagans between Ronald Hutton and Arthur Pendragon

Gordon the Toad will be linking the daytime programme to the evening party entertainment with Storytelling
in the "Happy Hour" after the closing ritual and before the party really begins.

Throughout the day there will, of course, be all the "usual suspects" - Three Stalls Halls for Pagan Retail Therapy and Real Ale bars for proper refreshment and relaxation

See the Conference Page on the PF website (www.paganfed.org) for more details on speakers, programme and events through the day, with regular updates on all the arrangements, as well as information on transport links and accommodation in the area if you want to party into the evening!

Conference 2003

So, you want to know what's happening for Conference this year?

Well, as usual, the PF Conference Team is busily beavering away to put together a programme that we hope will appeal to Pagans of all Paths, and none.

Margot Adler, the leading US Pagan Priestess, will be talking about Paganism on the western side of the Atlantic. Margot's seminal book "Drawing Down the Moon" was published on Samhain 1979 in Boston, the same day that Starhawk's "Spiral Dance" first appeared in San Francisco. Described by Ronald Hutton, in "Triumph of the Moon" as "an argument for modern paganisms as ideal religions for a pluralist culture, and for witchcraft as one of these", Margot Adler's book gave the US Pagan movement its intellectual basis for campaigning. As Prof Hutton says, "There has never been a British equivalent to the work". The book has been revised twice since its original publication, in 1986 and 1997. Margot Adler has also written a personal, political and spiritual memoir of the 1960's - "Heretic's Heart, a Journey through Spirit and Revolution"

Although she began her Pagan life as a Gardnerian, Adler now considers herself an eclectic Pagan, more at home with the worldwide movement of earth-based and Pagan spirituality, than with Wicca itself, or indeed with any particular tradition.

Most Pagans, indeed most people, probably first became aware of Richard Rudgley's work through his television series "Secrets of the Stone Age" and, more recently, "Secrets of the Dark Ages", both of which explore the theme that recent (19th and 20th century) historians have consistently underestimated the creative abilities and technical skills of early humans and the so?called "Barbarians" of English History's "Dark Age". He is currently working on a new series, developing these themes, but will be talking at the Conference on the early development of spirituality, from the Stone Age onwards.

Juliette Wood is also known to television viewers, principally in connection with her work on British, particularly Welsh Folklore. In addition to television and radio work on folklore topics, her major interest at the present time is the relation between medieval tradition and popular culture with special reference to 'new age' movements. She is currently teaching courses in the Extramural Department at University of Reading and at Cardiff on 'Sources of Pagan Thought'; 'Belief Systems in the Neolithic World' and 'Arthurian Literature and Mythology' and is Secretary of the Folklore Society.

Ronald Hutton and Arthur Pendragon will be debating a subject that will be of interest, and possibly of very great importance, to all present-day Pagans; Gordon the Toad will be linking the day's talks with the evening's party, and the team are also working on other entertainments and speakers for the day - but more of these in the next issue of PD when we should have the space to tell you about them in detail.