The journey started with a train trip down to Mestre to get to the airport on the day before my flight. I was invited to speak there on a panel about reconstructing Pagan religions. Since that time, gatherings have been held at irregular intervals in Chicago (1993), Cape Town, South Africa (1999), Barcelona, Spain (2004), Melbourne, Australia (2009), and again this year in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1993, on the centenary of that meeting, another gathering was held, billed as the Parliament of the World’s Religions. In 1893, approximately eight thousand people came together from many religions and spiritual traditions in Chicago, hoping to create a global forum for religious dialogue among many diverse faiths. With any luck, I can also spend a couple of extra days in Dublin book shopping! Be still, my Celtophilic geeky heart. We have been in correspondence off and on for many years, and I’m looking forward to meeting her in person. Morgan has been doing some really excellent translation work with early Irish tales, and publishing collections of her work, which I very much recommend. In October I will be back in Ireland for a pilgrimage hosted by Vyviane Armstrong and led by Morgan Daimler, to sites associated with the Morrigan. Sarah, one of my English friends, will also be there, so we are talking about splitting room costs for the con. My friend Jenn from Spokane is planning on attending again, this time accompanied by her husband Nick, and I’m looking forward to seeing them. September promises a reprise of the Sherlocked convention in London. Right now, I’m pulling together my plans and looking at booking my travel next week for both destinations. Their normal fares are better than Trenitalia or the plane, so it is looking like I will be able to afford Napoli in February and Ireland in March after all. Joe and his girlfriend had just got back from Naples last week, where they’d traveled for one Euro each (yes, you read that correctly) on the bus. I thought I might have to choose one or the other for the beginning of the year, but one of the folks at the American Corner told me about Flixbus, a German bus company that has inexpensive fares, and some really amazing promotional sales, for cities all over Europe. I’m hoping to go down to Naples and Pompeii in February, but got word the other day that a good friend of mine will be presenting a paper at a Celtic Studies conference in Maynooth in late March. My travel plans for the year are coming together. He was extremely generous and sent me five copies of the reprint in return for a copy of my poetry volume, which I sent out to him last week. He had done a reprint of the book recently, but hasn’t been able to sell them because someone pirated it and posted a PDF online for free. I was also introduced to Damian McManus, whose book on ogam I found particularly influential when I was writing my own book on the topic. I really hate the McCone orthodoxy.” Apparently they have a flat in Vienna and would like to visit Trieste sometime, so I gave them my contact information and told them I would be happy to show them around the city. For my fellow Celtic Pagans and Polytheists, I will report my favorite quote from the conference, uttered by Professor McCone: “I’ve gone nativist. Two of the people to whom I was introduced were Kim McCone and his wife Katherine Simms, whose names some of you will certainly recognize. Máire Herbert and the poet, at the reception for Tomás Ó Cathasaigh Photo from Ulidia 5 twitter stream
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