Doing Celebrate Samhain 2012

When we last left off, I had spent an irresponsible amount of money and shamelessly plugged a bunch of fantastic craftsmen and vendors. But I’m here to let you know there is more to shopping at Celebrate Samhain. There is always an impressive array of speakers, performers, and divinatory readers, and this year was no exception.

Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora (who you may remember from my previous Celebrate Samhain post) talked about “Cooking with Heirloom Magick”. This is subject matter that she’s been working with for a while and the evolution of her presentation shows. Audiences are never disappointed hearing her speak, probably because she always feeds them!

This year featured the first panel discussion I’ve ever seen at Celebrate Samhain. Deb Miller, a well known intuitive medium, was the moderator for a panel discussion called “Parting the Veil: Messages from the Other Side”. The panel participants were Christopher Penczak, Raven Grimassi, and Stephanie Grimassi. Audience members were allowed to pose questions to the panel. It was interesting to see such an interactive event at Celebrate Samhain.

Raven Grimassi spoke about “Samhain: The Open Portal”. As always his talk spellbound the audience. However out of everything he said what I’ll remember most was his humble and gratitude filled thank you to everyone in attendance and the event organizers for making it possible for him to do what he does. You hear thank yous often, but rarely with the sincerity heard that day. I suspect I’m not the only one who was touched by that moment.

The last talk of the day was Christopher Penczak, “The Dark Goddess Morrighan”. What can I say about hearing Penczak talk that I haven’t said before? He is quite simply THE occult practitioner of our generation, and it shows. Penczak has an encyclopedic knowledge and the ability to clearly communicate to the average person. There is a reason his books end up in every Witch, Pagan, or occult students home. Penczak’s talk that day was supposed to be in conjunction with a book that came out, but unfortunately the book hadn’t released yet. I’m here to tell you, when the book does come out….I want it.

While at Celebrate Samhain I also had my hands read. I had been hesitant to try any of the readers at Celebrate Samhain in the past, but I had heard very good things about Juliet Bell, a hand reader that attends the event. I decided this was the year to give it a try and I’m very glad I did. Ms. Bell is amazing, I was truly blown away by her accuracy. She is one remarkable woman, with over 30 years of experience! If you ever get the opportunity to get a reading from her, go for it!

And just in case that wasn’t enough, I did mention the two live bands right? Oh yeah, I got to hear two awesome bands live.

First was Featherscale, a Pagan rock band I guess would be a general description. However I’m inclined to go with a rock band with Pagan leanings. I really enjoyed their album “Gypsy Heart”, but once I heard them play live it will be hard to go back to the album. They rock out so much live that a mere album cannot contain them. And I wouldn’t want it to. A band like Featherscale should be allowed to rock out, wild and free.

The closer for the whole day was Frenchy and the Punk (who you may remember from previous articles and interviews as The Gypsy Nomads). Their punky cabaret sound is always a hit at Celebrate Samhain. FYI, Scott (aka “the Punk”) totally complimented me on my shirt. By default that makes me a bad ass too now, right? Crap, I bet by asking the question I ruined it. Anyway, Samantha and Scott got the crowd going and kept them moving until the end of the set.

After that was the Samhain ritual which I didn’t participate in. Instead Jim and I helped some of the vendors pack up. And just like that, it was over.

I can’t tell you how impressive of an operation Celebrate Samhain is and it is all because of two event organizers, Kevin Satoris and Jess G., and all of their volunteers. To think of all the work that must go in to making Celebrate Samhain happen 7 years in a row now, it’s amazing. I don’t think I took the time to say it while I was there because, well, I was too busy enjoying the fruits of your labor, but thank you.