Aw, Lighten Up, Frances.

Jason, at the Wild Hunt, has a nice round up of posts on PantheCon. Here's my favorite:

"Magic is the world suddenly acquiring a plot."

Margot Adler, one of my heroines, touched on one of Hecate's Tiresome Rants About Paganism: And in a final note, an attendee by the name of Todd praises Margot Adler for telling modern Pagans we need to shape up (literally).

"Kudos to Margot for facing probably three hundred Pagans and telling us all "We need to take better care of ourselves [i.e, physically]." And P-Con programming folks: When you get my proposal to lead a morning "fun run/walk" each day next year, take it seriously."

It isn't just physical health. I know waaaaaaaaaay too many Pagans who are in poor health, are broke, have horrible relationships, are in jobs they hate. Babe, magic is supposed to make you more effective at living an embodied life in this world, not less.

Jason also reports on the usual tebbily-tebbily serious types, who are waaaaaaaaaaaay too good for the hoy paloi: Erynn Rowan Laurie discusses why she had to turn Llewellyn down at the convention.

"Talked to Isaac Bonewits and it turned out he was dining with the acquisitions editor and the publicist from Llewellyn, who immediate pounced upon me and were desperate for me to write for them. I gently turned them down, explaining that a CR 101 would probably work for their audience, but I'd promised my ogam book to Megalithica, and that really, a book on filidecht would deal with the search for illumination that results in one of three things -- poetry, madness or DEATH -- and that honest, I didn't think their target market was quite ready for that." and the terribly serious, to the point of disenchantment, young people: A blogger by the name of "ardgruntler" was a bit dismayed by how quickly mutual friendship and respect dissipated after the convention.

"Are We Serious or Not? Because I'm finding it a little tough to see the leaders who were talking the 'we need to stand together as pagans' 'walk' at Pantheacon - two days later taking pot shots again. I've gone from really hopeful to kinda sad. And I feel a little bad myself. The best I can say about my behavior is that I didn't level shots at other organizations, just my own. (Don't know which is worse. But, since looking at one's own house with a critical eye is essential to any real growth, I'll stick with the former.)"

So it looks as if the Goddess is in her heaven and all's right with the world.

I do have one, small comment. I like medieval dress. I maybe put it on once a year for Pagan events, but, if you look around, most religions have some form of different dress for, at least, their clergy. Could we just give ourselves a bit of a break on this coughyoungerselfcough? When RenFaire garb is Paganism's biggest problem, I'll jump for joy. You never hear bitching about why so many Pagans wear tats or why so many Pagans have too much Celtic World Music on their iPods.