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UEA hosted the Merry Meet festival for CoG this year, thus the "CoG/UEA Merry Meet 2004" which was held in a hotel in Dallas August 19th through August 22nd. Merry Meet is CoG's annual festival and Grand Council meeting which is traditionally a camping style event held in various places across the United States. This event is a big deal, the members of the National and Local Councils are all volunteers and work for months to get the event organized and carried out.

CoG is a non-profit religious organization founded in 1975 whose goal is to unite and support cooperating Wiccan congregations, covens and solitaires. The Covenant has 15 regional Local Councils, approximately 134 Coven members and over 100 national and Local Council solitaires. CoG has the power to confer clerical credentials to it's qualified members to perform legal marriages, preside over funerals and other rituals of life-transition as well as provide counseling to Wiccans, including those in the Military and in prisons. It's important to remember that CoG does not teach the skill's to qualify a person for clergy. The Covenant is non-hierarchical and governed by consensus, hence the Grand Council meetings every year. A National Board of Directors coordinates CoG. The National and Local Councils support and sponsor activities such as public rituals, environmental activism, community projects and outreach. The Covenant also gives Scouting awards, sponsorship of college and university student groups, an Associate Participant program and legal assistance in instances of discrimination. Go to the CoG web-site for more on the details. www.cog.org.

UEA is an association of Wiccans and Pagans that meets annually, this year UEA celebrated its 31st anniversary. UEA was originally known as the Samhain Seminars and was started by Louise and Loy Stone in Amarillo Texas. UEA is no longer held in Amarillo and will be in Dallas for the foreseeable future. Email uea2005@aol.com for more information until the web-site is up after the first of the year.

The Texas Local Council of CoG sponsored the event this year and I really must give credit to two of the officers for giving me additional information for this article. Chuck and Thorn, thank you so much for your warm welcome, the support and information I needed to round this article out as well as all your hard work for Merry Meet! Chuck is the 1st officer for the Texas Local Council and Thorn is the 2nd officer of the National Board of Directors and Pursewarden for the Texas Local Council. Many of the words written here about CoG, UEA and the Local Council are from them. The Texas Local Council is just one of the 15. It was granted provisional status during Merry Meet 1994 founded by both Our Lady of the Trinity and Diana's Retreat covens. The Texas Local Council was granted full status in 1995 and now has sixteen covens from Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and even Oklahoma City. This year the Texas Local Council is sponsoring their first Witches' Ball in Dallas this October. You can learn more about the Texas Local Council or make contact at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/1609/index.html.

I went to Merry Meet for the very first time this year because it was in Dallas and my High Priestess encouraged me to go. Originally I felt trepidation and that $80.00 bucks was a lot of money. I went to the CoG web-site and read what information was there about this year's event. I sent off my registration and pretty much put it out of my mind. I knew I had to get up early on a Saturday, that it was an all day thing and that I would ride with my High Priestess. Goddess, help me I thought, what is this going to be like? Prior to going to the festival I had only heard little bits and pieces about CoG and about the annual Merry Meet festival. I was concerned that it would be cold in the hotel, that people would ignore me or worse treat me like a leper, that I would be bored or not know what to do. I knew that my HP would be in Grand Council most of the time so I was kind of on my own.

I received my email confirmation a couple of weeks beforehand. Finally the 21st was here, I set my alarm the night before and off we went. Of course I had heard there would be workshops and vendors and a ritual that evening as well as a Tea Dance. My High Priestess and I registered for Saturday only due to work and schedule restraints, although the full event started on Thursday and ended Sunday.

I was so relieved and pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome we received and the relaxed atmosphere. The hotel was easy to get to and we had a nice open area for reception, several classrooms, a big room for the Grand Council meeting and another nice sized room for all the vendors. There was a light breakfast provided in the main registration area, coffee (thank you very much), bagels, muffins, juice and soy milk. I was really pleased to see all kinds of cookies and crackers, coffee and water provided throughout the day.

When we came in we got our name badges, meal tickets, a notebook for handouts that already contained material on CoG, UEA, the Texas Local Council, the vendors and the workshops scheduled. We also received a CoG commemorative pendant.

So my HP was off to the Grand Council meeting and I was off to many workshops. I went to a workshops about colors and the aura, mysteries of the crystal ball, Interfaith, the Dark Goddess, the Kaballah and soul retrieval to name a few. The day flew by and I enjoyed every minute of it. Lunch was a big croissant sandwich with fruit and potato salad on the side. Dinner was a huge buffet with vegetarian as well as traditional lasagna, fish, different pastas and sauces, chili, different salads and three different kinds of cake. We were definitely well fed. Throughout the day I engaged in and was engaged in conversations with people I never met before some local and some from other states.

Volunteers facilitate all the Workshops and many are solicited for their expertise in a given area. Each of the workshops I attended was well presented and well received. I learned a great deal that day. The Soul Retrieval workshop was one of the more memorable for me personally because it consisted of guided mediations to retrieve or attempt to retrieve parts of the soul lost or detached for whatever reason. Whew, that was really powerful stuff, the presenter even gave me a hug afterwards.

The crystal ball workshop was the best, she even gave us a pretty little mesh bag of mugwort grown in her garden, I went home and started working more with my crystal ball and had better results than ever before. The woman who presented the workshop had such an easy style and a wonderful southern accent. The Kaballah workshop was so well presented, I have never met the gentleman that presented it but was and am most impressed with him. I could go on and on about the people who volunteered their time to present these workshops, the woman who presented the Color and Aura workshop travels around doing workshops and manufactures a camera that photographs the aura. Yes, I did get my aura photographed and analyzed. I didn't completely agree with the interpretation but that is ok.

Here's the photo!

I think it looks like I am wearing a Nemyss of white and a crown with the solar disk and horns. Thank you Lady Isis who is of course my Patron.

The Interfaith workshop was actually a panel discussion, led by a representative of the Thanks-giving Square Interfaith Organization in Dallas, and allowed me to ask questions about Interfaith. It was a real eye opener for me. I did not understand before what Interfaith was about and what all it entailed. CoG has an Interfaith Committee that is manned by volunteers and their endeavors are by their own funding with help from CoG through donations. Interfaith is about opening a dialogue with other representatives from other religious and cultural backgrounds to encourage understanding, celebrate diversity and even find common threads. Again this year, many of the CoG Interfaith Committee representatives went to the Parliament of World Religions which was held in Barcelona Spain. I encourage everyone to read more about CoG and Interfaith on the CoG web-site, www.cog.org/interfaith as I really cannot do the topic justice.

The vendors were some of the best I've seen, I saw a beautiful wrap that I just had to have, unfortunately someone else had to have it worse and I missed the opportunity. I did buy a really nice ritual robe that is tan with fringe on the sides and bottom with Isis and Osiris in a repeating pattern across it. There were loads of candles and incense as well as statuary and the most beautiful jewelry both handmade and manufactured. A lot of the stuff on display was not the same stuff you can just buy anywhere, these are things made by artisans who love their work.

All in all it was a great day for me, I got to spend quality time with my High Priestess, attend some great workshops, shop and eat (two of my favorite activities) as well as meet some really great people. The people I had the pleasure to meet were all quite warm and intelligent and everyone was very relaxed. People came dressed in jeans, slacks, dresses, caftans, sandals, boots; you name it. Some were old some young, some experienced in the craft, some not, some even very famous and others famous locally and the rest of us who are just who we are. All coming together to learn, grow, vote, shop, eat and network. I will definitely try to go to Merry Meet next year and may even try to get involved with our Local Council, we'll see. For now I am happy to come back and tell my friends what a positive experience it was and hope that many of the readers of this article will venture out to Merry Meet next year and learn more about CoG. Yeah, it was worth it.

Earthmystry