Today was the 11th annual Pagan Alliance Festival, which marked my second time in attendance. All around it was a great day! I marched in the parade - was part of the "stroller brigade", sang songs, and projected heartfelt energy of love and honour to be a part of such a wonderful community. I also managed to squeeze in a small sunburn. Having arrived around 10:45a and staying until about 6:25p, I got in a decent amount of sun time. We'll see tomorrow just how bad it is, though for now it seems pretty secluded to the areas in which my arms weren't long enough to reach to apply sunscreen (I did remember to get my sandal adorned feet).
As with every year there were tons of vendors, all selling their witchy stuffs. Several booths had clothes of a flowy nature, several had jewelry to fit every mood and theme, and several were somewhere in-between selling travel altars and statuary or even leather masks. The full extent of the items offered cannot be summed up into one measly blog post.
Beyond that, I got to witness the passing of the Keeper of the Light from my own High Priestess, Yeshe Rabbit, to another well respected community member - T. Thorn Coyle. While I don't know her personally, I do trust that she will hold this role to the full extent of the Pagan Alliance's expectations, and still discover bits of herself along the way. But this is not why I am here at nearly midnight, so lets get to the good stuff - shall we? xD
Through my perusing today I found a few things worthy of coming home with me. Trying to be budget conscious means less spending, so in reality I found a LOT of things I really wanted to bring home - but managed to limit myself to just a few. I also want to take this time to note that I have zero affiliation with any of the stores I'm about to mention, whether or not I purchased anything these are the business cards I grabbed.
The first place that caught my attention was a little pottery shop - Woven Potter. What first stopped me about them was the hand crafted coffee mugs with painted trees. After looking around for a few minutes I saw the figurines. Whatever forces you wish to claim were afoot today, as they led me straight to a little green dragon with a curved horn. He was curled up into a little ball, with his eyes open and looking up at me. Reluctantly, I put him down so I could continue on, getting a chance to kind of glance about, before I really was able to look in my usual way.
I also found some cute things at In and Out My Window. Run by two sisters and they've got sun catchers, hand knit tea cup sacks, travel altars, etching sticks, and much more. There was also a jewelry place - Eyescream. She had some awesome headpieces, cameo, key, and gemstone pendants, and so many other things that were just so much to take in (in a very good, pleasing way).
Then, there was this mask. This gorgeous, hand-painted, leather Dragon mask from Oak Myth. Purples and golds, horns and wings, oh my goodness was it decadent! There were other equally lovely masks, including a Peacock and an Athena mask. Really, you should check them out. I did not bring home this lovely Dragon mask, but oh man did it speak to me. Being a glasses wearer, masks are harder for me to use so I wasn't as reluctant to let it go.
Eventually I found my way to the wand shop - Willowroot Wands. I saw them last year, and remember them quite well. Last year I had a vastly different financial standing than I do this year (this whole having a job thing and all xD), so my experience was looking only. This year, on the other hand, I looked with an open heart and mind to finding something - or not, should that be the case. I saw many things that were pleasing to the eye, but there was one in particular that I just couldn't stand to put down - not even for 5 seconds to look at something else. I tried setting it down a few times, convincing myself I could think about it just a little bit longer. It was when I had set it down for that 5 seconds to use both of my hands for something else eye appealing that I knew it was meant to come home with me. With the twisty stem, this dragon wand became my own.
So now, in the midst of a major transition, my dragon collection has grown. I knew this year was going to be special, and with what's been going on thus far I can only wait for what's around the corner.
Mystical Blessings!
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