Presidential Welcome and Events Heads Up!

Presidential Welcome and Events Heads Up!

Welcome to Cardiff University, I hope that you are settling in well. As President of this society I felt that it was important to run through the events that we have organised for you this year, and hopefully peak your interest in the society.

First of all, we are a society for Pagans and those interested in Paganism; we have many members who walk many differing paths and therefore, as a society, we aim to have something for everyone. We cater to people who have little or no experience of Paganism as well as those who have a more in-depth knowledge of it. We aim to promote the free exchange of knowledge as well as encourage inter-Pagan social relations: to this end we run a wide variety of events both educational and social. We also celebrate the four major festivals that fall within term time (Samhain, Imbolc, Ostara and Beltane).

We have a lot of things lined up for you this year so here is a list of this term’s events with a brief summary:

• Weekly pub socials: these are a long-standing tradition in the society and are always held on a Thursday. This year we are moving to a new location and from now on they will be held at the Ernest Willows on city road. These socials are mainly a chance for us to get together and have a chat and a pint.

• Brighid’s cauldron: Pagan Arts and Crafts Evenings. Predominantly make-and-do evenings that will be held bi-monthly on a Monday (the first will be Mon 6^th Oct. See out events page on the website for more details.) There will be a small fee to cover the cost of the materials used.

• Introduction to Group Ritual: Two sessions designed to introduce you to rituals and magic in a group such as the Pagan Society, as well as giving you experience and knowledge of ritual techniques commonly used by Pagans. These will be happening in October in preparation for the Samhain ritual. They will be held on Monday the 13^th and Monday the 20^th.

• God and Goddess workshops: each month there will be a workshop on one God and one Goddess from world mythology. These will be in the form of a short talk (roughly 10mins) and then a more hands on activity like dancing, meditation, ritual, or making something. The first will be a joint God and Goddess workshop on Oya and Chango and will be held on Tuesday 30^th September.

• Monthly discussion group: this event is held on the first Saturday of every month at 11am in CF10, this is an ideal way to socialise with, and find out more about, other people in the Pagan Society in a more relaxed setting. The first discussion will be on Saturday 4^th October and we will be discussing “what paganism means to you”.

• Monthly meditation workshop: this is your chance to explore meditational practises from different traditions. It will be held on the 1^st Wednesday of each month, with the first being the 5^th of November.

We do also have several other activities lined up for you that as yet don’t have dates. We will have several talks throughout the year from people part of the Pagan Society as well as outside speakers, and everyone is welcome to write a talk. We will also hopefully be having a Yule Ball in association with the Harry Potter society; this should hopefully have a masquerade theme and will include a sit down meal, a string quartet and a disco. We have previously had Pagan pub quizzes, film nights and myths, magic and mince pies event at yule. And these may continue this year.

We also run several trips during the year. hopefully this year we will have one day trip and three residential trips:

• Castles day trip: we will be visiting three castles in the Cardiff area: Castell Coch, Caerphilly castle and Coity castle.

• Bath residential trip: on the Saturday we will have a day in Bath, then spend the night there, and then we will go to Avebury stone circle in the morning and then onto Stonehenge. We will hopefully have private access to the stones.

• Cornwall residential trip: we leave on a Friday night and drive to Bude; when we get there we will spend the evening partying on the beach. We will stay in Bude on the Friday and Saturday night. Whilst we are in Cornwall we will be going to Boscastle and Tintagel.

• Glastonbury residential trip: we always go around Beltane and will hopefully be there for the ritual at the Goddess Temple. There are plenty of Pagan shops, bookshops (new and second hand), magical supply shops and great alternative clothing. As well as this there are two Pagan temples, the Tor, Glastonbury abbey and Chalice Well garden.

There are also 2 events which are affiliated to the society:

• UK pagan moots: talks on various subjects which are held on the first Sunday of every month. The first talk is on “Samhain and other festival in the dark” will be given by Kim Huggens. A fee of £1 is asked for to cover the cost of the room at the Rummer Tavern.

• Tarot course: this is a complete course on the Tarot hosted by Kim Huggens, a Tarot tutor with 15 years experience of the cards. She will be asking for a nominal fee to cover the cost of the handouts and refreshments.

Well that’s it guys! I hope this helped, and I look forward to seeing you all at these events.