When I was made aware of the fully "virtual" Three Gates Gathering Pagan Unity Festival, I toyed with the idea of registering for it. At last, after a while, I decided to say "what the hell" and pay the 50 dollar registration fee! And am I so glad that I did!
Spanning four days at the end of May, the Pagan Unity Festival has been held in Tennessee annually for quite a few years now. This year naturally, things would have to be switched around a bit. I know that it couldn't have been easy to move everything online, but I applaud the organizers for their dedication!
I watched several of the workshops and presentations, and quite impressed with many of the presenters.
-A HUGE shout out to Christopher Penczak! His presentations were some of the most delightful and inspiring things that I have seen for quite a while! At the end, he would lead the viewers in a meditative practice that was AMAZING! I'd love to give a summary of a few things that I saw in my meditations with him:
-In his "World Tree" meditation, a gorgeous Bald Eagle swooped down and led me on a journey...through the branches of the trees and beyond.
-The meditation asked us to "honor those of the land that you are on." Going into this meditation, my Eagle took me outside of my apartment building that I currently reside in. As I stood there, a lovely young Shawnee woman, decked in full deerskin, approached me. She smiled at me, her black eyes meeting my light blue ones, and reached out to me, and her dark reddish brown hand entwined with my pinkish white one.
-After my uplifting meeting with the Shawnee girl, my Eagle took me on an ancestral journey. I saw myself at Newgrange in Ireland, lifting my hands up to the misty sky, and the feeling was very empowering. The vision then shifted to the edge of a quaint English village, the wild moors sprawling out before me. Again, the feeling was nostalgic, empowering, and uplifting. At last we transitioned one last time and I found myself in the deep, dark forests of Germany, where I knelt to the ground and pressed my hands to the forest floor, feeling rooted and grounded, safe and warm.
-After this journey, I found myself once again outside of my apartment building, where a rock golem approached me and handed me a bouquet of daisies! How's that for an amusing, uplifting experience! Overall, Christopher Penczak really knows his stuff, and is indeed worth looking up!
-Speaking of people worth looking up, for those of you more into mysteries and enlightenment, run, don't walk, and check out Oberon Zell. He's been in this field since the 1960's(!) and his presentations were incredible! He read aloud at one point from a children's book entitled "The Song of Gaea" (still being funded for publication.) While I'm not *HUGE* on divine feminine stuff, and indeed not birth, the illustrations in this book were shown and they are some of the most gorgeous artwork that I have ever seen! There were a couple that particularly "called" to me-here is one:
-I got an enormous kick out of Gavin and Wendy Rule! But seriously, their presentation of their magical curio items (some never seen before) from around the globe was incredible. The other presentation that they did was on the English runes-think "Beowulf." I felt as if the runes really resonated with me, and invoked a lot of ancestral memories!
-On the topic of Nordic/Anglo-Saxon stuff, I also attended a virtual Asatru ritual. The ritual was dedicated to the memory of George Floyd and Forseti, God of Justice, was invoked. Another great experience! We were also treated to a chapter from "Uncle Einar"-a hilarious retelling of Norse mythology in a modern day "redneck" tone!
-There were so many other great presenters and classes, that I can't even name them, but again, I want to thank the organizers of this for an amazing time! As weird as this year has been, this was great!
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