Pagan Pyjama Party Episode 5: Start as you Mean to Go On

Episode 5: Start as You Mean to Go on (January 2019)

We got together on New Year’s Day and looked back at all our Pagan shenanigans in 2018. We also looked at our current practice, and shared what we are looking forward to in 2019. Some of us almost fell asleep. Everybody drank a lot of tea.

Music this episode was Little Red One by William Elm, from the album Between The Dawn and the Day.

Hosts this episode: Josephine Winter, Mark Hills from Dancing Hare Grove, Ryan McLeod from Queer Pagan Men Australia and Witches of Oz, and Sarah Morgan and Seumas from The Pagan Collective of Victoria’s Monthly Hills Pagan Coffee Meets.

We discussed these Pagan gatherings, groups and initiatives this episode:

• Combined Covens (Western Australia)
• Dancing Hare Grove (Victoria)
• Hot for Joe Morris (South Australia)
• Mount Franklin Pagan Gathering (Victoria)
• Oak, Smash and Thorn Pagan Morris (Victoria)
• Silver Birch Grove ADF (Victoria)
• Sovereigns of the Golden Path (Victoria)
• Spiral Dance (South Australia)
• The Australian Wiccan Conference (we will be hosting this in Victoria in 2019!)
• The English Ale (South Australia)
• The Monthly Hills Pagan Coffee Meets (Victoria)
• The Pagan Collective of Victoria (Victoria)

…and here is a list of the books we talked about: 

• The Bast novels by Rosemary Edghill
• Traditional Wicca: A Seeker’s Guide by Thorn Mooney
• The Path of Paganism: An Experience-Based Guide to Pagan Practice by John Beckett
• The Chronicles of the One trilogy by Nora Roberts
• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
• Take Three Girls by Simmone Howell, Cath Crowley and Fiona Wood
• Blood Song and the Raven’s Shadow series by Anthony Ryan
• The Kingkiller Chronicle and The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

(Click on the episode cover image to listen!)

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Psst! Support the Pagan Collective of Victoria on Patreon and get early access to episodes along with bonus Pagan Pyjama Party content…

PCV Committee Reads: January 2017

Committee Reads – January 2017

Just as we used to do in the old newsletters, our lovely and bookish committee will be posting here on our new blog a monthly roundup of what we’re reading (or re-reading!)

A History of Pagan Europe by Prudence Jones & Nigel Pennick
(ISBN: 978-0415158046)
This book takes you on a fascinating journey through European history and how different cultures and religions affected each other and the influences and practices that carried through and the role they played.
– Mark

 

A Suggestive Inquiry Into The Hermetic Mystery by Mary Anne Atwood
(ISBN: 978-0766108110)
After re-reading Lyndsay Clark’s wonderful novel, “The Chymical Wedding” recently, I finally picked up the work which inspired it. Published in 1850, “A Suggestive Inquiry” is notable not only for being a seminal work on alchemical philosophy, and for being written by a woman in the 19thC, but also for its back-story; it was written as an introductory companion volume to the intended magnum opus of Atwood’s father, and he published it without reading the manuscript first. When he finally read the published book, he claimed that it revealed too many Hermetic secrets, and withdrew or purchased back every copy of the book, and burnt them all, along with his unfinished great work. Only a handful of copies survived, and it is from these that the book was finally reissued, nearly 70 years later. Not just a fascinating book but also a marvellous piece of alchemical history.
– Sarah

Pagan Portals: Australian Druidry by Julie Brett
(ISBN: 978-1-78535-370-3)
A succinct look at adapting our craft to the Australian seasons and how. It looks at the wheel of the year, cycles and ways to be more in touch with the Australian landscape in our practice. It proposes new ideas for Australian practitioners and explores issues that I’ve seen posed in many an online forum.
– Mark

Pagan Portals: The Morrigan – Meeting the Great Queens by Morgan Daimler
(ISBN: 978-1782798330)
Morgan examines the aspects of Morrigan drawing upon academic texts (providing plenty of references) and historical sources and discusses the aspects of the Morrigan, the mythology and symbology behind them in a modern context using accessible language.
Her book is aimed at providing clear information for readers of all levels, and providing a source of information that is readily available.
At just on one hundred pages, it is not a long read by any stretch of the imagination but Daimler crams an awful lot into those pages and I feel that I got value from the $4 I paid for it on the Kindle store.
– Mark

Someplace to be Flying by Charles De Lint
(ISBN: 978-0765307576)
Urban fantasy mixing Celtic and native American mythology; taxi driver Hank is drawn into the world of the Animal People from the dawn of time, after rescuing photographer Lily from a mugging one evening – they are both rescued in turn by ‘The Crow Girls’, and their reality will never be the same.
I have a love-hate relationship with De Lint; so much irks me about his writing, but I still somehow really enjoy his stories. This is probably the best-written, in my opinion, of the ten or so of his that I have read, and the story, cast of characters, and the world in which it is set (it’s one of his Newford books) are engaging and involving. A lovely, relaxing, escapist holiday read.
– Sarah

The Virgin in the Garden by A.S.Byatt
(ISBN: 0679738290)
I’m less than 100 pages into this, but I’m enjoying it. I loved Possession and liked Angels and Insects and this is classic Byatt; filled with sly asides, literary allusions and metafictional devices. A little drier and more domestic (so far) than the other two mentioned above, but clever and a pleasure to read. It’s the first of Byatt’s “Frederica” quartet, and centres around a play written about Queen Elizabeth I, in the same year Queen Elizabeth II is crowned; those involved orbit each other with a mixture of tensions, both personal and aspirational.
– Sarah

The Wise Man’s Fear: The Kingkiller Chronicle Day Two by Patrick Rothfuss
(ISBN: 978-0756407124)
In the sequel to the acclaimed Name of the Wind the reader continues to follow the tale of Kvothe on his adventures, learning more of his past and how he came to be an innkeeper in a small village in the middle of nowhere after being such a famous adventurer.
– Mark