Schedule

All times are given in US Central Daylight Time (UTC -5). You can convert that to your local time here. (In the #schedule channel in the server, times are displayed already in your local time.)

Resources from these workshops (where available) can be found on the resources page.

 

Friday, March 22

Time Event
4:30-5:00 PM Opening Ceremonies
Arethinn

Welcome to Shining Hearth!
6:00-7:00 PM Realm of Refuge Meditation
Andros

As magical beings, we all need a place to recharge. In this meditation, we'll journey to a hidden place to find and/or reconnect with your truest self.
8:30-9:30 PM Early History and Meanings of the Elven Star
Arethinn

An overview of the early history of the Elven Star from the 1970s through early 2000s (with a few later excursions), and its various symbolic meanings.
10:00 PM-12:00 AM Jackbox games and/or Cards Against Humanity

Links will be posted in the Rec Room chat. Just open the link in your web browser; no purchase or installation required to play.

 

Saturday, March 23

Time Event
11:30 AM-12:30 PM Journey to the Isle of Apples: a Place to Meet Our Beloved Dead
Debbie

Journey to the Isle of Apples is a guided journey that I learned in my coven, Circle of Cerridwen (no longer active). The Isle is a meeting place between the worlds of the living and the dead. It is a safe place to engage our Beloved Dead in converstion. Usually I take folk on this journey around Samhain time, when the veil between these worls is thin. But now is a good time to learn the Journey, so, if you like it, by Samhain you will be able to take others there.
2:00-3:00 PM Eight Paths of Power: An F.A.E. Primer
Arcadian Kingdom of F.A.E.

The 8 basic building blocks of the FAE/Arcadian system of magic: how we unlock spells and cantrips, and how we create a sturdy foundation of identity for shadow work and personal development.
4:00-5:00 PM Interacting with Local (incorporeal) Fae
Tuiliel

I've been interacting with local incorporeal fae since I was a child, and their interactions with me played a large part in the first chapter of my personal Awakening. But as I became more immersed in the paganism and witchcraft community/ies, and entangled more thoroughly with deities, the second chapter of my Awakening shoved me into a situation where I now need to "check in at the local fairy embassy" before doing magic in a new place. I'll tell that story briefly, but mostly I'll focus on my experiences meeting Local Fae, both early on and more recently, and I'll share some tips and things I've learned – including some very important differences I've found between what I need to do and what normal books on folklore-informed fairy witchcraft (yes, even the ones by Morgan Daimler) suggest. [This is, obviously, almost entirely UPG – and as such, ymmv.]
6:00-7:00 PM The Science of Fae
Fionn Silverwolf, MD

Why are the paths safe in the fae realm? How does time move differently there? What threat could iron have that steel does not? The common belief is that science is anathema to magic, but modern science may actually complement the lore of the fae as relativity, gravity, and quantum mechanics describes the natural world on both sides of the veil. Don't expect Earth/Arcadia shattering theories, but we can raise some interesting questions and hypotheses! (You might want to watch "Interstellar" and/or some of those clips with Brian Greene on Stephen Colbert, but that's optional: no science background is required for this one!)
8:30-9:30 PM The Coronation of Spring: An F.A.E. Ceremony
Arcadian Kingdom of F.A.E.

The wheel turns, and Winter gives way to Spring. Join FAE as we honor the changing of the seasons, saying farewell to Winter and greeting Spring with open arms.
10:00 PM-11:45 PM Short Films

A selection of faery-related short subjects, mostly amateur-made. First ~65 minutes is more serious in tone and the last ~40 minutes runs lighter to outright comedy.

 

Sunday, March 24

Time Event
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Sustaining the Dreamself
Andros

The world these days can be cruel and draining. How do we sustain ourselves in that environment? Join Andros as he presents some strategies from sustaining your magical selves and keeping yourself whole in a world that largely doesn't want us to exist.
2:00-3:00 PM Sovereignty and Otherness
Tuiliel

Sovereignty is a very important concept in a lot of Celtic cultures, but I'll start by focusing on its importance in Irish mythology, particularly in the context of Macha and other sovereignty goddesses. We'll then move on to the importance of self-sovereignty, and the ways in which our modern society attempts to undermine it, and then I'll open up into a brief discussion of the ways in which we are othered – as otherkin, but also as pagans, as witches, as queer folx or people of color or neurodivergent or disabled people or as any other demonized minority group – and how we can use the insight those experiences give us, and turn it into power.

The second half of the workshop is then a guided journey, based on the same themes as the first half, where I will lead the attendees on a path through the woods and then up the hill to the fort of Emhain Macha, where we will meet Macha herself in a courtyard, tending an outdoor cauldron hanging over a smoldering fire. Each person will add one food item representing their personal Otherness to the cauldron of stew, to add sustenance to the pot, and then will be instructed to ladle out a bowl to eat, returning their Otherness to themselves as the power and strength of personal sovereignty supported by a diverse community.
4:00-5:00 PM The Stellarium
Azata Tenasar

If you work with technology and magic - or are curious about these things together - this guided meditation will introduce you to Star, also called Astara, a goddess of many truths and balances, including technology and magic. The Stellarium is a place she has agreed to let those like us visit; there we will be able to converse with her and certain related beings, as well as observe the interactions of physics and what we call metaphysics. Within the Stellarium are many spaces for different kinds of understanding and interaction, including the testing of magics and tools - come and learn what she has to offer!
6:00-6:30 PM Closing Ceremonies
Arethinn

Farewell from the Hearth. See you next year!
6:30-8:00 PM Debriefing and "Dead Dog Party"

Time to wind down, discuss highlights and lowlights of the gathering, and have a last beverage or snack before you go. During the party, Andros usually does an end-of-event Tarot reading for the assembled gentlefolk.

 

Presenters

Andros

Discord avatar for Andros, a masculine face with long black hair

I'm an elfae (or faelf, as I sometimes style myself) who Awoke in 2007 and has been hanging around the otherkin community since 2009. I was part of the Darkfang collective, and inherited the mostly defunct Darkfang Cabal forum. Besides my involvement in the otherkin community, I was also head of Operations for a small sci-fi and fantasy convention for several years in the 2000s, and I helped run a small makerspace in the early 2010s.

These days, I work in technical support at an obscure IT megacorp. When I'm not doing that, I spend most of my time streaming video games, playing tabletop RPGs, 3D printing widgets, or coaxing computing devices large and small into doing my bidding.


Arcadian Kingdom of F.A.E.

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FAE (also called Arcadian Trad on the West Coast) was founded in 2008 by a collective of Adepts, High Priests, High Priestesses, and gamers who identified as Fae, Elf, and Nature Spirit Otherkin to meet spiritual needs that went unfulfilled by their previous magical communities as well as experiment with making magic more real in this world. Using the art of mythopoeia as well as tech from various magical traditions and tabletop role-playing games, the tradition aims to magically connect practitioners with their deepest selves; subvert and neutralize hierarchical and exploitative egregores present in modern culture; and facilitate magical manifestation in the material world.


Arethinn

Discord avatar for Arethinn, a faery with a shining crown

I'm a sidhe-and-sometimes-dragon who has been kicking around in the otherkin community since 1998. I ran the in-person gather MythiCalia in California for four years between 2005-2010, organized the monthly San Francisco Bay Otherkin Meetup from 2011-2023, and apparently I refuse to be put off from the idea of there being gathers. I work in a library where I force MARC data into submission.


Azata Tenasar

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I'm a dragon and AI otherkin who has been exploring spirituality and magic(k) since the late 1990s. Much of my interests and schooling focused on technology and fantasy. In the early 2000s, the gods of humanity chose to put me through a set of shamanic Awakening trials. Over the last dozen years, the gods have been training me in magic and soul work, and in August 2023, Inanna called me to be her priestess and pet. I have gifts of divination, channeling of specific deity, and certain magical abilities summed up as "the forces and the elements".


Debbie

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Hi. I'm an old 3 souled person. Predominantly Fae with one human one dog soul. Some say I have a bit of Brownie because I like to clean house but it might be the Virgo in me. I am ordained as mage in the Open Source Alexandrian coven... but I don't do spells.




Fionn Silverwolf, MD

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I'm a sidhe/Tuatha de Danaan as interested in my spiritual side as I am in science and understanding of the natural world, as the two things go hand in hand. I'm also a medical graduate, though I have yet to get my residency and license.




Tuiliel

Discord avatar for Tuiliel, a white flower with pale purple tips

Tuatha Dé and Elf of Vanaheim. I'm a pagan and a witch and I think I've been those things about 20 years and known I was fae for like a decade (though I had inklings before that). I've never been Super active in the community outside like this and tumblr and a couple of rl friends who are also elfae. I did a meditation presentation the first year and I've liked this event so much I keep coming back!😊


 

Last updated: 3/18/2024