Behold Pantheacon in Splendour Rising

Act Two: "Tarot, Books, and the Delightful Madness that was the OLT"
or, "Thora's Adventures in the Underworld"

Saturday morning dawned bright and early with an unexpected event- my ability to not only hear the alarm, but to also remember that I needed to get up and shower. Astounding. The shower was awful, because apparently every single other person in the building was showering at the same time, but necessary, as I doubted (and was later proved right) that I would not have time at any other point in the day to squeeze one in.

Breakfast, on the other hand, fell by the wayside. Oh well.

The first event I went to on Saturday was a workshop on how to make your own tarot through collage. I was very excited. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I adore art projects of any kind, but especially ones that involve glue. Unfortunately, this workshop ended up not being a hands-on sort of thing, but it was still quite good. It was given by a woman named Michele Jackson, and she showed us examples of both her decks that she has made (she's made lots!!) and examples of cards made in workshops or by friends/acquaintances of hers. They were utterly astounding
She also went through and gave us a whole lot of very good practical information regarding such things as copyright laws (in case you ever want to publish your deck), places to find good free images, different types of tools to use, ways to work through mental blocks, and so on. There was a whole lot more than I would ever have thought of on my own, and I was really glad to have it all laid out for me in such a thorough way.
My friends Pixie and Maia were also in the workshop, and I would like to take this opportunity to announce the up-coming creation of the CAYA Coven Hella Sacred Tarot. Who wants in? I'm taking volunteers right now!

When the tarot workshop let out, I went in search of food. The coffee bar at the hotel had a reasonably short line, and was producing enticing coffee smells, so I got in line. I spent a good twenty minutes in line, and I have to say, I enjoyed every minute because of the truly amazing people watching opportunity. I have always loved to people watch- I think other humans are fascinating in their behavior, their dress, their speech, their affiliations. Standing in line at the coffee bar was some of the best unadulterated people-watching I had all weekend. Also, I kept seeing people I knew! Caya folks were everywhere! I think that on saturday we probably had at least 30 people either in Caya or affiliated with Caya wandering around. Now, granted, 30 out of 2,000 and some is not that big a proportion, in fact it's a pretty small proportion. But we were everywhere! It's really deligtful to be at a gathering like that, and to see your tribe so well represented.
I was also pleased to be in a crowd in which muttering to oneself went largely unnoticed, as I was frantically repeating my Sun monologue to myself under my breath. Now that it's over I can confess that I didn't actually start memorizing it till that day (sorry rabbit!!). Poetry is easy to memorize, and I have great faith in my verb-chart memorizing brain. Nonetheless, I figured even if someone did hear me, they'd either ignore it or try to join in, so I was probably fine either way.

When I finally got my fruit cup and coffee, I went to my next workshop, Book Publishing 101. Indigo came with me- she's a talented young writer, and wanted to know more. It was a good panel. Honestly I have to say that I didn't learn much, but that's no fault of the panel. My father has worked in publishing for most of my life, and has been at the head of a small press for 15 yrs, so I have a lot of firsthand knowledge of the issues and rules and processes of publishing, especially for a small press, which most of these were. It was nice to hear the authors talk, though; I'm more familiar with the press side of things than the author side of things. And it was good to hear the basics reiterated.

During this time, K and the other Caya menfolk were doing their ritual on male archetypes in their capacity as the Brotherhood of the Moon. Apparently it was a resounding success,with a wonderful time had by all. For the rest of the con I heard a continual buzz about how great the ritual was, and how impressed everyone was with the group, and how excited all the men were. I must say, knowing the men of the Brotherhood the way that I do, I am in no way surprised by all the accolades thrown their way, but am proud to bursting that everyone else got a chance to see how great our guys really are. Ten points and a gold star to the Brotherhood!

Lunch was a hurried affair- several folks had been keeping crock pots of soup going in the bear cave, and there were a ton of people in and out, eating and shoving and talking and laughing. It was great fun to be around, but also really busy.

I had planned on going to the Seeing for the Tribes with Elisheva Nesher at 1:30, but didn't make it. I think I was making another crock-pot full of soup for dinner, but I don't remember for sure. Instead I ended up down in the Vending Room with money to spend, hooray!

At this point I can't remember if I went with Rowan or not- it's all a blur. I made a point of casing the joint thoroughly. I had a very limited amount of money to spend, and I wanted to make sure I did it properly. I made notes of everything I wanted, complete with price and likelihood of seeing it elsewhere sometime soon. Yes, I am a virgo.
In the end I only bought a few things that day. I was still so overwhelmed. But one of the things I had really wanted was a crown. I had seen the elderflowers wearing theirs, and of course they were everywhere at the con, and I wanted one. I dug through all the cheap ones, and couldn't decide. I tried on all the cheap ones, and still couldn't decide. Against my better judgment, I began to look at the more expense ones. There were three that I fell in love with; the first was a silver headband with clear/silvery stones in it and little strings of pearls falling in small loops onto one's forehead. It was beautiful. The second one that I loved was a gold circlet- it had zodiac symbols along the band, dragons on each end, and two dragons holding up a crescent moon that was resting on a sunburst. It also had amber, garnet, and moonstone on it. Lastly, there was a headband of lion heads, also gold, that I adored. Needless to say, they were all too much.
I was good. I put them down, I walked away.
I bought some hair danglies, which are awesome. I got one with a little bronze cat, a longer one with black beads and a dragon, and two longer ones with silver crosses and green beads.
I went back and touched the crowns. I tried them on again. I walked away.
I bought another hair dangly. It has a little silver oak leaf on it.
I went back and touched the crowns and walked away.

At some point I ran into Kian, and we wandered around looking at various things. Then we saw the snakes. There were about three people wearing the most beautiful snakes. Mostly they were smallish (less than 5 ft), but there was one massive albino python who was one of the most gorgeous creatures I have ever seen. He was freshly shed, so he was all soft and sleek, and he curled up my arm when I stroked his head, so the woman let me hold him. He was huge, and quite heavy- I had to wrap him twice around my hips and let him drape over my shoulders just to hold him up. As his owner said, "if he wanted to, he could kill you. I couldn't do much about it. But he won't, because he likes you". He was magnificent. And he did like me. He crawled all the way up my arm and neck and tasted my shoulder, my chin, my mouth, my nose, my forehead, and my left eye. The woman said that now I'm snake-blessed. I don't really know what that means, but it sure sounds cool as hell.
Eventually I had to let him go. Or rather, eventually I had to forcibly remove him. He was heavy! I ended up buying a dragon armband from the woman's friend. It seemed appropriate, and since it had a gold dragon on it, I could wear it with my Sun costume.

At that point, Kian went back upstairs, and I decided to wander some more. I ended up passing the crowns again, and lo and behold, there was Lady Kahina wearing the crown I had been looking at! I was so pleased. It looked lovely on her, and I was so happy to see it on someone I knew and loved. If you can't have something yourself, it's always good to see it go to someone you like. So then I showed her the golden circlet I was still lusting over. Turns out that was the one that CC had initially picked out for her. So, clearly it was meant to be. ;) She gave me permission, and since you don't argue with Lady Kahina, I then bought my crown.
I love it. It is the best crown ever. I wore it every day.

I was starting to run out of time. Counter to sense, this was actually a good thing. It meant that running upstairs, sucking down some soup, and throwing on my costume in time to get downstairs for rehersal left me no time to worry much about how I was going to have to perform to a roomful of strangers in two hours.

Rehearsal happened in fits and starts, and then...
then...
it was time.
Time for the Oracles Living Tarot.

As far as I could tell, everything went without a hitch. I went third, which meant that I had very little time to stand and ponder when I would have to go, which was excellent. I get performance amnesia, so I really have no idea if I said things or not, or whether I said things right or not. I managed to get from one end of the walkway to the other without any major mishaps, and Rabbit said she could hear me, so I'll just take that and run with it.
Everyone else was magnificent. All the caya folks were great. There were so many monologues that I just loved. Everyone looked great, everyone was well-received, no one forgot their lines. There was a slight volume problem from where we were sitting, but I think it was ok in the audience.
I was happy with my costume change. I wore a short yellow dress, my bitchin mask, these awesome art deco yellow shoes that I have, and I sprayed gold glitter over every inch of my body. You should have seen the bathroom when I was done. I had to go out on the balcony and breathe to avoid suffocating on the aerosal fumes.
But it all went smashingly, which was just great.

Afterward we went up to a room to do oracles. I guess previously they would do this in the same ballroom, and let the audience be more interactive, but because some other act had booked the ballroom right after us, we had to migrate. I only got asked for one oracle, but I think I flubbed that one, so it's probably for the best that it was only one. I didn't really know what I was doing- I mean, I know what an oracle is, but I didn't know how these specific oracles had been done in the past, so I didn't know what the lady was expecting. But oh well. Whatever.

I had wanted to go to the Shamanic Djideridu thing, which sounded amazing, but by the time we finished the oracles and went upstairs, it was at least ten and way too late to go to something that had started at nine. So I just ended up hanging out in the bear cave with all the lovely people there. Some of our crowd went to rock out with their hauk out at the Hauk concert. Branwen and a few others, I don't remember who now. It did sound fun, but I was just drained. Hanging out with Rowan and Greywolf and Pixie and Puck and everyone else was just as fun. I think Artemisia and a few others went to check out the Green Fairy thing too, but absinthe is not my thing. I love the culture, but hate the taste, so I gave it a pass.

At some point I gave in and went to bed. All the time I spent hanging out in the Bear Cave just blends together in one wonderful melange of dear friends and loud laughter. Probably some of that has to do with the fatigue and probably some with the drinking, but it was all just massively delightful.

I would just like to acknowledge Rowan and Iris, the most incredibly sexy Tower and Devil cards on the history of the planet. Rowan, that corset and that chainmail whip, dear heaven. And lovely Iris, who said that I didn't have to choose between them.... mwahahhaaha.

Tomorrow: Act 3- "Plants, Faeries, and Pan, OH MY!!!"