a step into the unknown

 

 

I’m sitting in one of those hotels for people who are on business trips of over a week – you know, the ones with small kitchens, that are more like truncated apartments?  I’m here because the hotel that hosts the Pagan conference Pantheacon sold out months ago.

 

Both hotels are in San Jose, located amidst several office parks. Most of the offices have emptied since we were here last year, with almost every one sporting a “for lease” sign.   Things are so desperate that the lonely Denny's is offering a big discount for customers with a Pantheacon badge.  It has the feel of a place that has just become a ghost town, with no hope of coming back to life for quite a spell.

 

But there is life at these hotels, both full of all manner of folks interested in places between worlds, comfortable with working with spirits and all that is not visible to the naked eye.

 

It’s always been a very kooky thing, this conference of Pagans in a corporate hotel, but this year, amidst this rainy ghost town of corporate businesses, it feels like we truly are in dreamtime.

 

Last night, the group of us who put on the restorative retreat The Fool’s Journey did a ritual to help conference goers drop their expectations and step into the shoes of the Wise Fool.

 

It felt right, this piece of magic about stepping into a future we cannot see, going forward with an open mind, open heart and outstretched arms. What I loved about the ritual was the breadth of age in the circle. There was a pregnant woman, a new baby, kids of all ages, and my guess is just about every decade of humanity was represented. All of us together did a spiral dance (the baby was strapped to a parent, the very old in the middle in their scooters) and good humor filled the room.

 

When I am done with my coffee I’ll go back to the conference. Who knows what will happen? We step into a future that we cannot see. Best to do it with a bunch of wild earth loving visionaries.