PFNE Conference

We attended the Pagan Federation North East Conference in York in APril 2012. We had an excellent day out meeting and talking to so many people and it really came home to us again how affectionate the general public are about Doreen and her legacy. We were accompanied by Esme Knight of Pagan Pride organisation (www.paganpride.org.uk) and Sarah Kay of Nottingham Pagan Network (www.nottinghampagannetwork.org.uk) who shared a stall with us and bravely manned it all day while Ashley was off and about networking and hob-knobbing !

Ashley gave his talk on Doreen's life and legacy as one of the event's main speakers and had the "interesting" experience of addressing the likes of Patricia Crowther and Philip Hestleton on the subject of Doreen which he describes as "hair-raising". Ashley invited PAtricia to add colour to the parts of his talk he describes as "a bit stuffy" and and rather a double act ensued to the delight of the audience: Ashley providing dates and facts and Patricia reaclling her personal memories of the events he mentioned! Ashley finished up by giving a talk written by Doreen as an introduction to Witchcraft from the 1960's and a few small artefacts that had belonged to Doreen were exhibited to a number of fascinated people. Patricia Crowther capped it all off by reciting, from memory, a poem Doreen had written for her and this ensured a ral ovation at the end.


Having had a very long chat with Patricia, we're pleased to say that CFPS and the Foundation are now in discussion with Pagan Pride, NPN and PFNE to put on an event later in the year to honour Patricia Crowther along the now familiar CFPS theme of "A Day For . . ". While there are no details yet, the event will certainly be held in the north / midlands and not in London as are all the CFPS conferences normally . .

All in all, an excellent day cementing support for the Doreen Valiente Foundation from the Pgan Federation, Patricia Corwther and the wider pagan public. Thanbk you to everyone who made us feel so welcome in York including Steve (PFNE) and Esme's mum and dad who put us up and provided excellent conversation and company too. Blessings to all of you!

Patricia Crowther - The Zodiac Experience

CFPS have teamed up with Patricia Crowther to present her Zodiac Experience series of initiatory meditations and visualisations which take the form of a small rite to be performed as the sun passed through each of the 12 houses of the zodiac over a one year period.

The first period (Aires) began in March 2012 and the second (Taurus) will appear on April 20th. If you are wanting to do these journeys then you need to hurry up and do the Aires rite before April 21st

http://www.centre-for-pagan-studies.com/zodiacexperience/

make a note of the above page as all the rites will be posted here . . .

Pagan Federation North East Conference

CFPS and The Doreen Valiente Foundation will be in attendance at the Pagan Fed North East conference in York on 21st April 2012 (details here). Ashley will be speaking about Doreen's life and legacy and will present a talk she wrote and delivered herself (though sadly Doreen's accent and manner as an impression remain the domain of John only!) and following some discussion we think a surprise peice of Doreen's writing will feature at the end of it . . . from a surprise guest  . . . 

Ashley on TV

The conference planning was slightly interrupted by my (Ashley's) appearance on BBC1's "The Big Questions" in a debate about polytheism and the follow on from that has been an hour long programme for Sky TV filmed with Jay Lakhani of the Hindu Academy where some strong resonances have been formed between paganism and hinduism. Hopefully we'll see more of Jay during the year and we're very pleased indeed to be associated with him and with the hindu community who have a great deal of spirituality to explore . . .

You can see the video of the polytheism debate featuring Ashley and Jay here:


And the Sky TV programme will also be on youTube after it has aired on Sky Fitness one sunday evening during April.
(We'll remember to post it here!)

Further to that Ashley has made a few videos with Nottingham's Pagan Pride group of which he is a part and some very interesting debates have sprung up as a result . .



Witchcraft In 60 Seconds (Ashley's new party piece):



Belief, Faith, Religion, Spirituality & Witchcraft:

Conference Planning - A Day With Ronald Hutton

2012 began with a bang, announcing the Day For Ronald Hutton conference in spetember, organising everything associated with this, booking the venue, the speakers, the stalls and starting to sell tickets. Its going to be an amazing day and we're already looking forward to it . . 

2012 - Its going to be a good year

Well, I've been very remiss in not writing more about the work we're doing at CFPS so I'm determined to make time to correct this during this year. The blog is to be a slightly informal, behind the scenes record of the individuals in the CFPS and what we've got up to this year . . .

Pagan Pride 2011

The Doreen Valiente Foundation's John Belham-Payne was invited to be the guest of honour at this year's ever growing Pagan Pride Festival in Nottingham. John was invited to lead the parade of over 600 pagans through the streets of Nottingham and to partner the event's founder Esme Knight in performing the opening blessing ceremony.

John, Esme and First Nations' Elder, WaNaNeeChe, headed the parade  to the accompaniment of drums, singing and hurdy gurdy music from Serpentyne. The parade was met by the Nottingham public  cheering and applauding the colourful spectacle as it made its way through the city centre and on to the festival site at Nottingham's aboretum park where an estimated 1000 pagans enjoyed a day in the sunshine listening to live music, talks and demonstrations and browsing the numerous stalls and displays.  John officially declared the event open and raised a great cheer from the crowd as he and Esme performed a four-elements blessing from the bandstand in front of the gathered crowd and then placed the elemental symbols at the four edges of the park.

Later in the day  after manning the Centre For pagan Studies / Doreen Valiente Foundation stall and talking to hordes of well-wishers John was joined by fellow trustee Ashley Mortimer to give a talk about Doreen and the foundation to the day's biggest crowd. Some of Doreen's artefacts were displayed, a few stories were told and Ashley gave a talk that Doreen had written and delivered during the 1960's which was well received indeed. A questions and answers session followed and the talk was concluded with the reading of Doreen's poem "What Witchcraft Means To Me" which has never been published.

The event was declared a huge success, adding to its claim to be the UK's biggest free pagan event, and Esme was reported as saying that the involvement of the CFPS and the Doreen Valiente Foundation was a big part of its success. Ashley & Jon ended the day on a perfect note as they were presented with a new artefact for the collection which is a pentacle necklace once owned by Alex Sanders!

Pagan Pride itself has begun the long process of rasing funds to put on next year's event and, being based in Nottingham himself, Ashley will be supporting the cause on behalf of the Foundation and making further talks and displays in this capacity. Pagan Pride is expecting to roll out to other cities next year and has pledged to be involved in the plans for the future for the Foundation and the Centre For Pagan Studies which include a weekend event in 2013 and a first official exhibition in Brighton also in 2013 which it is hped will be the precursor for the long awaited opening of the Museum and study centre.