Mirth Reverence

Greetings one and all!

Now that the PantheaCon 2009 schedule is live and public, its time for the official announcement of the ritual that Jamie and Kate have been working on with a few friends. Jamie and Kate co-wrote the ritual based on an idea Kate had to celebrate the polarity aspects of the Wiccan God and Goddess. Jamie is also the Stage Manager for the ritual and will be the on site contact, as Kate cannot be at the convention yet due to her health.

PantheaCon is a great opportunity for people interested in alternative religions and spiritual ideas to gather and network with each other. The convention has been held in the Bay Area every year since 1995. Mirth and Reverence is thrilled to be a part of the convention and looks forward to sharing our work with everyone.

“A Walk in the Garden of Polarity”
Written by Catherine Pennington and Jamie Morgan

Come take a walk with us through the Garden of the Wiccan Lady and the Lord to explore and celebrate Divine Polarity from a decidedly eclectic Wiccan perspective. Covens and solitaries from the Gardnerian, NROOGD, Coven of the Sacred Feminine, CAYA, Dark Moon Circle, NineSisters Ritual Group, and Eclectic Wiccan and God. This ritual will contain an extensive guided meditation and is not suited for young children. Participants are encouraged to wear celebratory garb, their cords, and any coven insignia they may have. Everyone, Wiccan, or not are most welcome and share in this celebration!

Program Bio
Mirth & Reverence is Catherine Pennington (by Remote) and Jamie Morgan (on Site). Together they create beautiful art work including Altar dolls and Beaded Jewelry as well as teach classes on ritual and magic, and produce innovative rituals. For this ritual they have the fun of being joined by many talented ritualists including members of their coven – Ratatosk, along with members of DarkForest Coven, Coven of the Sacred Feminine, CAYA, and a collection of amazing individual solitary practitioners, techies and warders. For more information visit their website: www.mirthreverence.com

The ritual will be Sunday February 15th at 7pm in the Cedar ballroom.

If you are at the convention that weekend, look for Jamie to be out and about, when she is not prepping the ritual, and Kate’s husband Scott Pennington at his massage booth Improoovements. Stop  by and say hi!  Also keep your eyes open for the roving stuffed cat gathering photos of friends to take back to Kate!

There is a great post on no and low VOC paints.  Less outgassing, better for the environment both in the manufacture and use of house paints.

As with many people my focus starts to shift in November. I look to the busy holidays and wonder when I am going to find time to keep up with everything already on my plate. Fortunately I was able to go to a trade show this past weekend and pick up some beautiful focal pieces that I can wait to turn into one of a kind Silver Kitsune work!

Time for our wholesale order to head off to The Sacred Well. You can go see one of Kate’s dolls and a bunch of our necklaces in person at the store.

My silver order arrived today! Lots of different kinds of sterling silver wire (different gauges and shapes), some jewelry display stuff, my two new ring mandrels. Tasty stuff that I can’t wait to play with!

September was a really good month for Mirth & Reverence, Sacred Seeds and The Silver Kitsune. Mirth and Reverence managed the following:
1. Our first class intensive.
2. A large wholesale order.
3. A delivery order for October.
4. Re-launching and consistently working on the website.
5. Our first order on Etsy!
6. Writing our Purpose Statement.
Go us!

I’m not sure what’s kicked over in my brain but I’ve been running around, doing stuff like crazy for Mirth and Reverence for the last week. Part of it was getting the schedule in place and then knowing the framework of what is to come. For me, having a list a mile long isn’t (usually) intimidating, it is empowering. It gives me a structure and a goal all in one.

So what exactly did I suck up my time with this weekend? A bunch of it was research on etsy.com and how to really leverage it as a marketplace. Sadly, as a jeweler I’m one in a sea of thousands there, so mostly I am using it as a convenient storefront rather than having to maintain one on this domain myself. It’s also a portal and does bring in views that I wouldn’t otherwise get. Hopefully over time it will also build itself into a true internet presence in its own right (but I’m not going to count on that).

Research on Etsy, particularly in the forums that I hadn’t really dealt with has been quite illuminating. It’s led me to our new packaging vendor which does 100% recycled or carbon neutral packaging (Nashville Wraps) which is very much a part of our purpose statement (linked at the top of this page) which is to walk lightly upon the Earth. Even though the all white boxes would be cheaper, we think that the extra 5-7c per box is totally worth it. Did you know that bleaching the paper white is one of the largest causes of toxicity in our water supply? Another thing was to rethink some of my product photography and ways I can improve it. There was also a great thread on ‘one good craft show hint’ that I got a ton of nifty ideas from.

Today was taken up with Kate’s clergy class for the afternoon, this time on people, positions, and sizes of events. Since ritual is another big part of what Mirth and Reverence is about (more on that in the coming months) it helped me refine my ideas and get feedback from others on the stuff that is frequently in my head and nowhere else.

Tonight I hit the etsy forums again, and while I didn’t get any new ideas this time, I’m beginning to get a feel for how that community interacts with each other and how the energy flows. I also sent email off to a friend who has great luck finding a particular kind of stone that I need for the necklace I designed earlier in the week.

It’ll be interesting to see what this week brings me.