Witchy Con in retrospect...

Ralph on the far left with Audrey on the far right

Hello fellow crafters

This Saturday past - 1st April - saw the second Witchy Con take place at Wantage in Oxfordshire.

We arrived early enough, got parking and made our way to the Civic Hall where we were met by smiling faces and a very calm Judith of New Moon. We registered, got our name badges and our familiars badges and after pausing at the raffles table to admire all the very pretty prizes, we went upstairs for the opening ceremony. Judith is fantastic as a spokes person. She is funny and warm and had everyone smiling as she invited everyone to shop till they dropped and to attend as many of the talks and workshops as they could.

The whole day went well - she cleverly scheduled a lunch break for everyone and no workshops or talks were held during this time. All of the workshops and talks were free, included in the price of £10, which was a bargain.

Marcus and I attended the first talk of the morning by Sally Morningstar on Wiccan Healing. It was a very solemn talk and I genuinely took some new notions away with me. We wandered away to the dealers room, did a quick scout around and I bought two lovely bracelets - one depicting the 22 major arcana tarot cards and the other a sort of a charm bracelet. There weren't many traders in the hall, but they had good quality goodies and of a varied hue, so that really made a good impression. I shot off to listen to the Ralph Harvey talk whilst Marcus scooted off to take some photos of the Tarot workshop.

Wow - Ralph Harvey is such a genuinely knowledgeable gentleman with a keen sense of humour. And the amount of knowledge he has to draw from 52 years in the craft and with his wife and partner, Audrey they have seen so much and have been the catalysts in the world of the Craft for such a long time, that it was a genuine treat to listen to him. He talked lovingly about his history and told interesting antecdotes of his research. He is the author of a book called The Last Bastion - it explores the history of Witchcraft in England and especially in Sussex - the last county in England to embrace Christianity and the first to re-embrace Witchcraft once the Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1951.

We broke for lunch, came back and I sat in on John Dee's talk on Egyptology. A huge, vast and very interesting subject to cover in an hour. He did his best though and had us lapping it up - his style was humourous and jocular but informative. Yet another person to corner in a pub to sit down and talk to for hours.

John Dee

Afterwards I had the good fortune to sit down and chat with Ralph Harvey and his wife and I must say that they were wonderful. Marcus joined me and we sat, like days of old, before our elders, listening to tales told and of their adventures. I asked Ralph if he would ever consider writing his autobiography and he said no, quite vehemently. He went on to explain that so many things have happened in his life, personal and career wise that most people will expect it to be untrue. He launched into a story that had us gasping with laughter, it was so preposterous, yet true, by all accounts as Audrey backed him up on it. We could see that they were a dynamic couple, having got that intrinsic link that true soul partners have, finishing each other's sentences etc. We must have chatted in excess of forty minutes or so and both Marcus and I came away feeling like we have spent time with two very genuine and lovely people. They invited us to stay in touch - something which I think we will do.

Marcus flitted about, in a manly way, posing people for photographs and general making everyone touch up their make-up. I sat in on part of the Anna Franklin talk and too soon the day was over, with Judith closing the day down. Then the real fun started - the raffle! We all crowded around, around 200 of us, waiting to see if we had won anything. Sadly, my strip I bought came nowhere. However, they did a further draw based on our pre-registered badge numbers and I won! I darted forward and chose a Ly de Angelis book called The Quickening. Exciting stuff! We did a last zoom around the traders hall, waved goodbye to Judith and her team and drove home.

It was a good day. It was well attended, but there is scope for more people to attend. The talks I attended were brilliant and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I will definitely be going again next year.

List of traders attending: http://www.witchycon.co.uk/dealers.htm