First off, a huge shout-out to Cat Rosarium and William Keisle for an amazing conference last month. Mesi anpil, anpil for the hard work, the set up and the general cohesiveness of the weekend. I came home electricified and began to write in earnest. My next book will be done before next year.
The conference was amazing for it's literary content, the level of expertise demonstrated by the lecturers and the attendees, and its offerings. I've yet to attend a conference that has this level of literacy on the East coast (more about the Crucible in a moment, though).
The speakers ranged from book editors and creators to ritual historians and occult art afficiandos to perfumers of esoteric blends and a fabulous show of occult book publishing from England. All in all, this was a collection that spoke to my soul on a very deep level. I am inspired to write in a big way.
This month, we made a first time visit to the Crucible, a magic convention on the east coast in Princeton, NJ. The day was long but very fruitful and filled with interesting people. The organizers did a good job of keeping it small, tight and on time. There was a few techno-gliches, but nothing one doesn't encounter in hotels today (mostly relating to the Internet).
The speakers were all local, so it was a good chance to meet and hear folks from this side of the pond talking about their vision and magic. The lack of spiritual was disturbing to me. I suppose because they have been intertwined for me, for so long, I can barely tease out the threads of individuality anymore. But the magic was interesting from a purely technical point of view.
Rufus Opus probably was my favorite. A very dedicated young man, the numinous experience of his HGA was palatable. He was passionate and very likeable. Jason Miller made some nice points in his Financial Sorcery lecture. And George Hanson was a very engaging speaker with a witty take on ghosts, ghost hunters and the dead. I bought his book, just for the sheer fun ot it.
Andrieh Vitimus was out from Ohio, talking about doing magic, as opposed to thinking about it. It was good, but I wish they'd placed him earlier on the docket. He had the clean up slot at 11pm at night, so the squeeky chair factor (and shrieking children) were a decided distraction. But his talk was engaging and had lots of good points about actually working magic, as opposed to just reading it and arguing theory.
Rufus, Jason and Andrieh along with two of the Omnimancers were part of a two slot panel discussion on Magic Mishaps and Polarity in Magic. They made some great points, some very funny bloopers and showed how egos left at the door make for a fine panel of experts. I applaud them all for a job well done.
The rest of the conference was regrettably lack luster to me. The opening talk on Time/Space magic was disjointed due to a very poor Internet Skype session. The magic and numbers class was OK, but lacked a good explanation as to how the magician got his formulas. The Emotional Release class felt a bit off. I did not get to any others. But the fact that my friends choose other classes, then bailed to join me might give an indication that either the topic or the presentation wasn't quite on point. These are all small things that did not detract from the overall event in my opinion.
I am grateful we have a reasonably priced offering on this coast. Hopefully, next year will draw even more talents to the Princeton area for a great conference. Mesi anpil to the Omnimancers, for their effort and time.
I will attempt to reclaim some of my postings from WordPress, and place them here. And I will be blogging regularly as well. Mesi anpil for reading. See you round the houmfort!
LHR,
Mambo
