PantheaCon Report #1: Advancing Devotional Practice with Silence Maestas

So, it’s been almost a month since PantheaCon, and I’m just now getting around to reviewing my notes! I’m not entirely sure where the last three weeks have gone. Thus, without further ado, I present my first PantheaCon write up, with more to follow this week!

PantheaCon 2017 Report: Advancing Devotional Practice with Silence Maestas, February 18, 2017

Saturday morning, I actually managed to get out of bed earlier than I do for work (and getting up for work is no small feat, let me assure you—morning is something that happens to other people) to pull myself together to attend a 9:00 AM workshop with Silence Maestas on”Advancing Devotional Practice“. I’ve read Silence’s book “Worshipping Loki“, so it was great to finally hear her speak in person!

Silence began the discussion with the question, “What is devotional practice?” For her, it means prioritizing your emotional engagement with your spirituality, which I think is a fantastic working definition. Regardless of what you say your priorities are, your actions reveal the truth about what you value.

One of the keys to devotional practice is “radical solitude”, which gives us the time and space we need to get in touch with our selves and our truths. As she put it (I’m paraphrasing here), self knowledge is knowledge of the path, and we have to be our own manuals. I found that especially relevant, as it seems we are constantly being told by the dominant culture that only designated experts have the real information, and we must turn to them for answers. Despite the staggering number of self-help books in the spirituality section of your local bookstore, you are still the authority on your soul, your truth, your life.

From the theoretical, the conversation turned to the practical. You can’t get a room full of pagans together without the subject of altars coming up, and since altars are a significant part of devotional practice for many of us, the discussion was lively and useful.

We exchanged Handy Pagan Household tips (use a paper bag and an iron set on low to remove candle wax from carpet), discussed the acceptability of electric candles (perfectly useful, especially if you need to leave the flame unattended), and raised the question no one could really answer—”How do I keep my cat from drinking from the water offering bowl on the altar?” The general consensus was that the cat is going to do what the cat wants to do, and if you can’t keep the cat out of the altar room, the cat is going to drink the water.

From there, the conversation went to expectations versus reality in devotional practice. Many people commented that they wanted to spend more time in practice, but found it difficult to create the time they needed. Silence suggested starting by recognizing your expectations for what you want to do can be a goal, rather than an obstacle. Rather than trying to do everything right now, start with where you are, and work towards where you want to be. Which, really, is useful advice for pretty much any undertaking!

As a follow up last week, Silence did a great blog post on “Devotional Practice Shouldn’t Make You Feel Like a Failure“, expanding on some of the discussion in this workshop.

This workshop was fun, engaging, and useful, and I hope to see it again next year at PantheaCon!