Gaia Gathering Montreal – Open Meeting
Location: Concordia University Multifaith Chaplaincy 2090 Mackay, Montreal
Time: 7:00PM Monday, October 18th

** Version français suivra**

Hi everyone

The time has come to coax you all out of the woodwork, vine-work, and gyp-rock! Gaia Gathering is seeking volunteers to help with local fundraising events and the Conference as a whole. This is a great way to both get involved with the community and plant something special onto a CV.

If you want to help out, and you’re in the Montreal area, come out to our next Open Meeting on:

Monday October 18th at 7pm
Concordia University’s Multifaith Chaplaincy
2090 Mackay, Montreal

If you can’t make the meeting (or if you’re outside of Montreal), please email Scarlet, our volunteer coordinator, at scarletcougar@gmail.com and include what
you can offer, your email and phone contact information.

We look forward to seeing you on the 18th!
Amanda, Hobbes, Melanie and Scarlet

=======================
Bonjour à tous,

Le temps est venu de vous inciter à sortir des bois, des murs, etc.. La conférence Rassemblement Gaia a besoin de bénévoles pour aider à l’organisation
de divers événements en plus de la conférence elle-même. Voici une excellente occasion de vous impliquer au sein de la communauté, tout en ayant l’occasion
d’ajouter un petit quelque chose de spécial à votre C.V. Si vous désirez nous donner un coup de main, n’hésitez pas à nous joindre à notre deuxième réunion
ouverte, qui se tiendra:

le lundi 18 octobre, à 19 h
Concordia University Multifaith Chaplaincy
2090 Mackay, Montréal

Si vous n’être pas capable to venir au réunion, SVP envoyer un courriel à Scarlet, notre coordinatrice es bénévoles, à scarletcougar@gmail.com. N’oubliez
pas d’y inclure ce que vous pouvez nous offrir ainsi que vos coordonnées (nom, numéros de téléphone, courriel)

Merci! On espère de vous voir à Concordia University Multifaith Chaplaincy!
Amanda, Hobbes, Melanie, Scarlet

=======================

On my way back from Ottawa, I stopped by my favorite spice shop in Rigaud called The Peppermaster. After sampling a few of their new sauces (and picking up some Yule gifts), I mentioned the Witches Ball to the owner hoping that she’d put up a poster in her shop.

Not only did she agree to take the poster, she also gave us a box of 16 of her sauces for the raffle. Awesome!

If you’d like to discover and explore the Peppermaster’s sauces, tasting is believing! But you don’t have to go all the way out to Rigaud (although it’s worth the trip!). The Peppermaster has a booth on the ground floor of the Eaton centre in downtown Montreal. Please reward their support of this event and our community by visiting their booth. I promise you, you won’t regret it. Tell them that Hobbes from the MPRC sent you!

We just wanted to thank Karen at the Treasure Chest shop in Pointe-Claire for approaching us and requesting posters and flyers to help us promote the Bardic and the Witches Ball.

You can see posters (and soon get tickets) at her shop at:

Treasure Chest – Coffre aux Tresors
60A Donegani
Pointe Claire, QC
H9R 2V4
514-630-9229
treasurechst09@gmail.com
Google Maps

We’ve had bilingual posters made for the following events and we’re asking our supporters to put these posters up in places where they will be seen:

• Montreal Witches Masquerade Ball (thanks be to Alex for designing the poster)
• Gaia Bardic Fundraiser (thanks be to Crystal for designing the poster and flyers)

The posters have been brought to the two following places for you to pick up:

• Charme & Sortilege (4933 Rue de Grand-Pré, Montréal)
• Le Melange Magique (1928 Ste. Catherine Street West)

When putting these posters up, please do NOT put them on illegal places like mailboxes, telephone poles, parking meters, bus shelters, etc. If our posters are found in these places, we could be fined up to $1500.  For the Witches Ball: if Sala Rossa finds out that the posters have been put in illegal places, we could lose our rights to use their space for this event. So please BE CAREFUL when putting the posters up.

Keep in mind that these events are on October 23rd (the Gaia Bardic) and  on October 29th (the Witches Ball), which is not far away. The sooner we get these posters up, the better. Good places to put posters up include:

• Universities
• CEGEPS
• Community centres
• Cafes
• Grocery stores
• Pharmacies

Thanks for your support!
–
Hobbes
Montreal Pagan Resource Centre

Saturday, October 23rd 2010 — Gaia’s Bardic

An evening of music, song, storytelling, and magic to raise funds and awareness for the Gaia Gathering pagan conference in May 2011.

Time:   October 23 · 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location:    Atwater Library
1200 Atwater
Montreal, QC
Facebook Event page

Featuring: Hobbes • Alex Del Busso • Shayne Gryn • LC • Triskalia • and much more!

Tickets sold @ / Billets en vente @:
Melange Magique (1928 Ste. Catherine Street West, Montreal)
Charme et Sortilège (4933, Rue De Grand-Pre, Montreal)
$10 advanced purchase
$15 at the door

========================================
Friday, October 29th 2010 — Montreal Witches Masquerade Ball
Sala Rossa  (4848 Blvd St. Laurent)
Facebook Event page

Samhain Ritual/rituel (free/gratuit): 7pm (18 years/ans +)
Participants are asked to bring a small stone
Celebration: 8:30pm

Wear your wildest masks! / Portez vos masque les plus fantastiques!
Prizes and raffles! / Prix a gagner
Music spun by / Musique par: DJ Marcus Aurelius
Bring your drums! / Apportez vos djembes!

Tickets sold @ / Billets en vente @:
Melange Magique (1928 Ste. Catherine Street West, Montreal)
Charme et Sortilège (4933, Rue De Grand-Pre, Montreal)
$10 advanced purchase
$15 at the door

Sponsored by / Presente par:
Montreal Pagan Resource Centre
Centre de Resource Paienne de Montreal

We’re very encouraged to hear that people have been asking about tickets for the Gaia Gathering Bardic and the Montreal Witches Masquerade Ball. We apologize that we were not able to make the tickets available for purchase.

However, we just dropped the tickets for both events at Melange Magique and some of the tickets should be available at Charme & Sortilege by early next week.

• Gaia Gathering Bardic: October 23rd 2010, $10
• Montreal Witches Masquerade Ball: October 29th, $10

It’s a new school year and CUPS is back and running again! Over the years, CUPS has been a great presence in the Montreal pagan community by organizing rituals, workshops, fairs, and supporting their university pagans.

They have a new website up, so go check it out and find out how you can get involved.

CUPS website

It’s been fixed! We realize that the theme was a bit different at first, but we now have the site is back up and running. Thanks be to Raven for whatever tinkering she did that helped us get back on our feet.

It is with great sadness that our community mourns the loss of a beloved author and pioneer in the Neo-Pagan movement. On the morning, of August 12, 2010 at approximately 8 AM ET, Isaac Bonewits passed away peacefully in his sleep surrounded by his wife, his brothers and sisters, his family and friends.

Isaac Bonewits was a published author, teacher, and the the founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF), currently one of the largest Neopagan Druid groups in North America. He was a witty, passionate visionary who encouraged critical thought and magical personal responsibility, giggling all the while.

In 2009, he appeared in Ottawa during a conference called Fire in the Hearth (organized by the Red Maple Grove) and gave one of his last lectures and panel discussions. You can listen to one of those lectures at the Standing Stone & Garden Gate podcast.

Later in 2009, he was diagnosed with cancer, and although initial treatments showed promise, as 2010 progressed, his health deteriorated, although not his spirit! On his Facebook page, he invoked a line that all geeks would recognize: “I’m not dead yet!”

He will be sorely missed by friends and fans all over the world. We wish him safe journey to the Summerlands and know that he will be received warmly by those who have gone before. We also wish to share our deepest sympathies to his wife Phaedra Bonewits and to his son Arthur.

You can read more about his life and accomplishments at the ADF website.

Stay tuned to the MPRC website because a few Montreal groups are preparing a public memorial for Isaac Bonewits to take place (tentatively) on Wednesday August 18th. Check back here for confirmation on that!

In late 2009, pagan author Isaac Bonewits was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He went through several treatments over the following months, and although the treatments were going well, things have taken a turn for the worse.

The latest note from Phaedra Bonewits (taken from Facebook):
Just wanted to address the rumors that Isaac is back in the hospital. He is at home as he had wished, but he is nearing the end. His brothers and sisters are on their way to say goodbye. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.

You can read more about this on his blog and Facebook fan page:
Blog: http://neopagan.net/blog/?tag=cancer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/isaac.phaedra.bonewits

If you can, please share your healing energies and good wishes with the Bonewits.