Messages In This Digest (4 Messages)

1.: 2011 Witches Ball Masquerade Fancy Dress - 2 weeks to go From: David Garland

2a.: The Mercian Gathering From: Tim Hartridge
2b.: Re: The Mercian Gathering From: Brock Ulfsen
2c.: Re: The Mercian Gathering From: carteblanche13

Messages

1.: 2011 Witches Ball Masquerade Fancy Dress - 2 weeks to go

Posted by: "David Garland" paninc@optushome.com.au djkgarland

Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:19 pm (PDT)

2011 Witches Ball Masquerade Fancy Dress

When: Saturday 1st October 2011, 7:00 pm
Where: The Gaelic Hotel Sydney, 64 Devonshire Street Surrey Hills NSW 2010.

Cost: Early bird Tickets are $60 for Members and $65 for Non members until the 30th of July. From August 1st Members tickets are $70 and non members $80, a booking fee applies from our ticketing agents. Members wishing to purchase tickets will need to enter in a password, which can be obtained by emailing Kelly at witchesball@paganawareness.net.au .

If you would like to purchase tickets, please visit the Moshtix Website.

Transport: 2 min walk from Central Station

Contact Email: witchesball@paganawareness.net.au .

Web: http://www.spiraldance.com.au/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159953274064657

RSVP: Tickets available at Moshtix http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=46583

Description:The Pagan Awareness Network's biggest event of the year, come and join it the fun at this years fancy dress Masquerade Witches Ball. The line up for the night is Australia's most loved folk rock band, Spiral Dance and we are very proud to announce that Ms Penny Tickle will also be making a return to the stage, be sure to come along and see what she has in store for us this year as we dance the night away.

About Spiral Dance: Enter the world of magic, myth and legend where the horned god walks the greenwood, selkies from the dark sea call, and where water spirits from the deep lochs wait. Dance with Pan of the ancient forests, climb through magical holed stones and follow giants as they tread the windswept moor. Sing with the sirens, walk through the realms of faery and search for the green man,let the spirit of the music take you to a landscape of lush Celtic hills to experience mysteries and intrigue and to gaze upon the mists of ancient times,this is the world of SPIRAL DANCE

Don't forget to dress up in your witchiest and most outrageous outfits, as there will be prizes for best dressed, along with a few lucky door prizes thrown in. This years witches ball comes complete with its very own fashion parade, who knows you may even find your outfit for next years witches ball.

Finger food is included in the ticket price; remember to arrive early so not to miss a single minute of this amazing event.

Tickets are strictly limited so get in early and order your tickets from Moshtix http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=46583 to avoid disappointment.

Earlybird Tickets run out on Sunday Contact : witchesball@paganawareness.net.au if you are a member for the password to get the members price. Don't miss out this year will be huge.

L&L
David

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2a.: The Mercian Gathering

Posted by: "Tim Hartridge" ozpagan@ozpagan.com wwwozpagancom

Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:36 am (PDT)

http://www.merciangathering.com/merciangathering.htm

Having a look see at what's on offer in the UK pagan scene. It really
makes me wonder though, why there has been little development of
these sorts pagan gatherings here in Australia?
Looking at photos from this particular gathering also brought back
memories of the old Eostre Gatherings I use to run here (between the
mid 1980s through to the late 1990s). We too had the burning of the
Wicker Man, as well as other bone-fire rituals.
The only local festival that compared with Eostre was Euphoria, which
also is sadly no more. The lack of community development to continue
on the tradition means Australia is lagging behind with these types
of avant garde pagan gatherings.

Just an observation.

vinum sabbati,
Tim Hartridge <moderator>

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2b.: Re: The Mercian Gathering

Posted by: "Brock Ulfsen" brockulfsen@yahoo.com.au brockulfsen

Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:15 am (PDT)

Local councils here tend to not allow such land use.

The infrastructure most would require is quite extensive and expensive.

The insurance costs would be very large.

Australia has a rather different feel than the Uk when it omes to
camping on farms.

...Brock.

On 15/09/2011, at 9:37 PM, Tim Hartridge wrote:

>
> http://www.merciangathering.com/merciangathering.htm
>
> Having a look see at what's on offer in the UK pagan scene. It really
> makes me wonder though, why there has been little development of
> these sorts pagan gatherings here in Australia?
> Looking at photos from this particular gathering also brought back
> memories of the old Eostre Gatherings I use to run here (between the
> mid 1980s through to the late 1990s). We too had the burning of the
> Wicker Man, as well as other bone-fire rituals.
> The only local festival that compared with Eostre was Euphoria, which
> also is sadly no more. The lack of community development to continue
> on the tradition means Australia is lagging behind with these types
> of avant garde pagan gatherings.
>
> Just an observation.
>

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2c.: Re: The Mercian Gathering

Posted by: "carteblanche13" carteblanche13@yahoo.com.au carteblanche13

Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:46 am (PDT)

The Mercian Gathering looks wonderful, Tim!

"The Mercian Gathering Mission Statement:

- To honour the Old Gods
- To create a sacred space for people of all paths to come together in a spirit of fellowship, reverence and learning
- To raise money for our chosen charities"

I think the UK might be a special case, though. I know things go on all over, but Britain is particularly good at this stuff! Then again, they also invented cricket, so perhaps it's high time they got a little healthy nudge :)

Some points of my own (I wrote these down, then thought "nah", but bugger it, here they are anyway).

1.
IMO, This issue affects everything cultural, not only paganism. By comparison, culturally speaking, the Northern Hemisphere quite literally "has it made". It's partly to do with population density outside of giant cities, partly to do with the ease with which they can rely on cultural momentum and saturation of history.

Australians do sport...REALLY WELL. The rest? We're getting there...making it all up as we go! ;)

2.
Oz is not only devoid of (or perhaps "blessed with an absence of") an entrenched rhythm of epic deep-culture events (with perhaps a few exceptions, mostly sport!), it's also devoid of the population density (out of metropolitan areas) which makes such things as the Mercian Gathering feasible logistically and desireable in the UK. Everything is so far apart here, unless you live in a large city (where it's even further apart!).

The middling-sized towns "where the edges are softer" are literally fewer and further-between, and there's perhaps only a handful of such areas where the locals wouldn't be frantic and horrified at "this sort of thing" and any local participants' reputations "ruined" in the small communities involved, due to the oddly fascist blend of atheistic rationalistic capitalist materialism and rabid Church-goerism usually found in such places.

3.
Important, too, is the fact is that in the UK there is a natural resonance with a memorable atavistic pagan past that is easily harnessed and makes such events a touch more relevant (in average people's minds) on purely historic/cultural grounds. Your average mug is likely to be more culturally literate in the terms that make such events speak to him in ways they don't speak to a similar person here. (Perhaps- I'm just shooting the breeze).

It's an interesting situation. On the one hand, the WWW makes it possible for minorities to connect remotely to others of like mind.

On the other hand some of the energy that goes into that today might have in the past been channelled into more social "happenings" of the offline variety, but is short-circuited or fulfilled in some way by the convenience of online communing.

In short, I think regular, reliable, low-maintenance small events is a good start. Critical...erm, mass, can then follow.

?

C.B.

--- In WitchesWorkshop@yahoogroups.com, Brock Ulfsen <brockulfsen@...> wrote:
>
> Local councils here tend to not allow such land use.
>
> The infrastructure most would require is quite extensive and expensive.
>
> The insurance costs would be very large.
>
> Australia has a rather different feel than the Uk when it omes to
> camping on farms.
>
> ...Brock.
>
>
> On 15/09/2011, at 9:37 PM, Tim Hartridge wrote:
>
> >
> > http://www.merciangathering.com/merciangathering.htm
> >
> > Having a look see at what's on offer in the UK pagan scene. It really
> > makes me wonder though, why there has been little development of
> > these sorts pagan gatherings here in Australia?
> > Looking at photos from this particular gathering also brought back
> > memories of the old Eostre Gatherings I use to run here (between the
> > mid 1980s through to the late 1990s). We too had the burning of the
> > Wicker Man, as well as other bone-fire rituals.
> > The only local festival that compared with Eostre was Euphoria, which
> > also is sadly no more. The lack of community development to continue
> > on the tradition means Australia is lagging behind with these types
> > of avant garde pagan gatherings.
> >
> > Just an observation.
> >
>

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