Our Trip to Gaia Gathering

We arrived Friday, May 16th, to a beautiful campus. University of Ottawa has the largest campus I have ever seen. It is like a mini city all on its own! We registered and touched base with the main coordinators to learn about where we were going to be setting up for vending. That evening, there was a open hospitality space where we met and spoke with the early arrivals. We set up three mini tables to tease people with our enticing stock from the store.

Among the people we met on the first night were such well known Candian Pagan contributors as:

Lucie Dufresne (one for the main organizers of PFPC and a leading Pagan academic)
Shelly Rabinovitch (another leading academic and an author - An Ye Harm None)
Brendan Myers (an academic author of several books who is having his book launch here on July 19th for The Other Side of Virtue)
Sian Reid (an academic and an author of Between the Worlds: Readings in Contemporary Neopaganism)
Helmut of Helmut's Forge (master blade smith from Hamilton Ontario)
Castalia (an academic and a musician)

Saturday was a very EARLY day of setting up and vending. We discovered the interesting phenomenon of an empty vending room during the talks and a packed and busy vending room in the breaks between the talks. Our vending space was shared with Lucie Dufresne's Hungry Eye shop, Shelly Rabinovitch, Sian Reid & Helmut's Forge, Castalia's music, WynterGreene Magazine, Bruce and his wife with stained glass and silk shirts, and Dan Miller from the Heathen Freehold Society of British Columbia.

Dan Miller was a fascinating person to speak with as we knew very little about British Columbia activities and even less on Heathenism. He will be hosting the 2009 Gaia Gathering. We hope to be there as well! If you want to learn more about him and heathenism, you can hear his lectures on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/heathenfreehold .

Speaking this day were some local Pagan's from Quebec: Marisol Charbonneau (an academic from Montreal), Mireille Gagnon (an academic from Quebec City), Emily Rose Michaud (a Montreal environmentalist) and myself Scarlet (mentor, teacher, clergy and academic). Some of the other interesting speakers from across the country were: Bythor (an Edmonton Thelemic Wiccan speaking on Queering Magic) from Alberta; Sheena (Pagan Ecology speaker from Calgary, Alberta); Dan Miller; Shelly Rabinovitch; Lucie Dufresne; Dale Delessio (Ottawa Hospital Clergy and Pagan Parenting advisor); Lee Ann Farruga and Patrick Gilliland (the Ottawa keynote speakers about Pagan Parenting).

We met attendees from Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and all over Ontario and Quebec. It was a great opportunity to connect with folks across the country!

We closed Saturday with a great dinner at the Vietnamese Kitchen Restaurant, where we sat and chatted with friends both old and new. This casual time was best for forging friendships with our Pagan celebrities and folks around the country. My own close friends arranged the booking for the dinner, only for them (Marie and Rick) to give birth later that night (4:21AM)! Congrats!! He was obviously not attending Sunday's events are speaking at the Panel he was leading that day. We were planning on going on one of the Ottawa Haunted Tours, but a flash storm negated that possibility.

Sunday was likewise incredible! We were again vending early and enjoying the company of our co-vendors. Today's talks included more local folks: Hobbes of the MPRC and our own Melange Magique (Magical Blend) manager, Robyn! Other great speakers this day included: Richard James of the WCC and Toronto Occult Shop, and Farrell McGovern of the ADF Ottawa branch, along with many other Druids from around the country.

I want to take this moment to thank Lucie Dufresne and Lisa Crandall and all their other assistances for making this conference happen at University of Ottawa. I would also like to thank Bruce for all his lovely company and help when we packed up Sunday evening.

We tried to attend the closing dinner, however, the little local restaurant was too packed with... everybody... from the conference. We would have liked to be at the Gaia Gathering Annual General Meeting, but we are home and in our store ... OPEN for the Victoria Day holiday Monday.

If you ever get the chance, We highly recommned attending the events and conferences in and around your area or boldly traveling out to an event farther from home. The opportunity to meet people and discover new traditions and people is invaluable! Thank you Gaia Gathering.

Scarlet
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Robyn's afterthoughts:

Going to Pagan festivals has been a new thing for me this year, and Gaia Gathering was yet another great way to meet other Pagan folk, to network for business and pleasure, and to see what else is going on elsewhere as well as to come home with lots of new and exciting ideas.

I, like Scarlet, had a nice time at Gaia Gathering. It was relaxing and fun, the mood very upbeat and the company fascinating. I particularly enjoyed re-connecting with some of the folk I'd met at the Toronto Pagan Conference earlier this year, as well as making new friends from across Canada.

There are a few more festivals coming up that I'm looking forward to attending as well: Echoes, Wic-Can Fest (maybe?), Kaleidoscope and the Hamilton Pagan Pride Festival. Who knows, maybe I'll meet YOU there!

-Robyn