Paganicon 2025

Being quiet is comfortable. Keeping things the way they’ve been is comfortable. A journey to spiritual discovery often is fraught with pitfalls and blessed with joys. Many come to various Pagan, Heathen, and polytheist traditions as already socialized adults, with the presumption that the rules learned in our homes and at school are sufficient for our encounters on our new chosen path. In reality, we are left vulnerable as we learn new norms, language, values, beliefs, and behaviors common in the earth-based Pagan/Heathen/polytheist communities that do not fall into a traditional monotheist perspective shared by Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. As more enter our communities, there is an need to avoid a norm of silence in favor of an embrace to speak openly before emotional and spiritual wounds drive an individual to express grief or remorse at joining our community or a particular path. As a minority religion, followers of Pagan/Heathen/polytheist traditions are vulnerable to the ravages of silence or the reality of only hearing news when it is a bad or harmful to our communities. This panel is a conversation, a starting point to engage with how to break this tendency towards silence within our various paths, and how to replace it with a reasonable openness that encourages speech in a positive manner. Just as children are socialized in families and at school, we need to address the socialization as a community to allow growth and permanence.

Join us to dive into the wisdom of the Ansus Rune through Norse cosmology, in our lives and bodies, and as a source of impeccability of speech and action in our ever changing world. In Volva Stav tradition, this is one of the foundational runes we work with to create connection to and make change in ourselves, our communities, and the world around us. In this workshop we will share, explore, and try embodied techniques of connecting to Ansus with breath, toning, and bodywork and how to connect with the source of the wells of the world tree to affect change.

The Mórrígan is an ancient Irish goddess frequently associated with warfare and Magick. Yet in many myths, the Mórrígan shape-shifts, influencing major events in Irish mythology. This class will begin with a brief introduction to the Mórrígan, with a special focus on the myths in which the Mórrígan changes shape. Through original exercises inspired by these mythologies, participants will have the opportunity to explore ways in which they can shift different courses of events in their personal lives.