paganism


 

Hotel Room Shrine at PantheaCon 2003

I made a simple shrine in my hotel room at PantheaCon again this year. It started out top of the tv cabinet, but after the other folks in the room took over that space, I moved it to the small table. I didn't really bring much from home this year. I left Tutu at home after the whole incident with the asp head last year.

The background painting is a piece of ritual art I did in a class. I used oil pastels on black paper. It is very representational compared to my usual art thing. One right hand, three lefts. The hands came out red, yellow, green and blue, one for each cardinal direction. My inspiration was the hole in my fireplace at home, and the words "explore, receive, observe, release."

The intertwined snakes are from Wild Earth in Santa Cruz, and were a Valentine's gift from my lover Chris. The red and black beads they are wearing are from the Pombagira devotional on Friday night. The pink rose is from the ritual that Chris and his wife Cally had on Sunday for a small group of close friends and lovers. It was a beautiful ritual with lovely things for all five senses.

The string is connected to a consecrated metal washer, forming a pendulum from another class. The pendulum was anointed with oil, but I can't recall which one.

The crystal is a flourite in purples and blues that Darren gave me for Valentine's Day. He was part of the room crew and slept soundly on the floor next to the sliding glass doors.

hotel room shrine with painting, statue, flowers, crystals and beads

The ritual art painting survived the train ride home. I cut out the hole that had been left open between the hands and fit the painting up to the real hole in the fireplace. They were the exact same size. The painting now resides permanently as part of the main room shrine, framing the hole beautifully. Ermine, my roommates cat, comes into my room regularly to check the hole. Feng shui indicated that leaving the hole open to draw the cat was part of the balance for the house.
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