These are personal impressions from previous moots and as such are not necessarily any reflection of your reality.

Saturday 7th March 2020 - Moot

At 1pm I was on time so did the dishes. At 1:30pm got a text suggesting that I bring along news articles. If I hadn't already done so, it wasn't going to happen. Packed a bag and got changed. Somehow I was now running 5 minutes late. Walked briskly up the road to the Co-op and got stuck in a short but persistent queue. Legged it out of the Co-op and am now 15 minutes late. Forced march across some of Edinburgh's finest steep roads and I'm sweaty but have reduced the deficit to 5 minutes as I get to Sofi's. Only 5 minutes late but the crowds of people awaiting the moot have already given up and left !

Despondent I awaited the stragglers both familiar and new to the moot before issuing a grovelling apology for my tardiness to the boss. Due to overwhelming public demand (well, one person asked) I did my talk on The Wheel of the Year limited edition 2020 version.

All things considered it was a jolly little moot.

Kenny.

Saturday 1st February 2020 - Moot

Confusion as to when the moot was going to happen due to the clash with Imbolc didn't help. Neither did not getting the front room in Sofi's nor my printer having a sulk when I tried to produce the News and a talk.

As it turned out most of these items resolved themselves. I turned up with a bundle of printed paper and the gamers didn't show so we used the front room. It would appear that the Goddess wasn't too displeased at us celebrating Imbolc in the pub no doubt aided by Jean attempting to pass on information about the significance of the event. A low turn out was expected as others would be involved in extensive mystical celebrations given the date. For reasons which remain inexplicable I gave half a talk. Still it counts, right ?

The low numbers did however prove useful in obtaining seating in The Dagda for the apres meeting wind-down.

Kenny.

Saturday 10th March 2018 - Moot

The weather had now improved to the seasonal norm where it was only raining persistently which gave me the opportunity to test drive my newly acquired rain jacket. Trendy it isn't but as they say in Pitlochry it's better to arrive practically attired than to be found as the fashionably late in a snowdrift.

I wasn't expecting many people to make this one after the postponement but the moot defied the odds and we were into double figures, without recourse to binary ! Three attempts at introductions finally got us over the line and we were soon out of time for the News items which politely avoided comment on the absence of our newsreader and I see no reason to mention it here either. A short break was called to avoid over-excitement and although someone referred to it as a "comfort break" it was really just an excuse to visit the bar and recharge our glasses. The Charge of the Goddesses as it is known in pagan circles. I suppose that it did make me feel less anxious.

Nanette's talk on "Making a Magickal Oil" was a practical demonstration complete with props and the punters sniffing various items. Needless to say it was well received and continued with a question and answer session in the Dagda. Apologies to Michael for picking a busy bar with little in the way of available seating.

Kenny.

Saturday 3rd March 2018 - Moot

Postponed due to the "Beast from the East" which it turns out was a messy weather system and not, as I had thought, an Oriental villain in a Hammer film.

Saturday 24th February 2018 - Outing

Once again we had a moot outing to the Filmhouse in order to catch a viewing of "Pan's Labyrinth" which was quite topical since the Director of said film was about to pick up the award for Best Director at the Oscars. Sort of retro chic. I wasn't really expecting anyone else to turn up on a day when Scotland were playing England at Murrayfield and subsequently the centre of town was awash with a mass of humanity clogging up access to bars. I was counting without the dedication of the Haddington Crew who defied slow running transport to arrive before the start of the film.

It was a pleasure to see this film on the big screen though it should go without saying that the Spanish Civil war was a brutal affair and the director doesn't avoid this. The film was rapidly running out of characters by the end and neatly returns to the opening scene completing the circle. Outside the theatre there was a re-enactment of the mayhem taking place in every bar as Scotland had the audacity to win! Unperturbed, the small band of pagans availed themselves of a table in a hostelry and had an apres-film question and answer session. (Yes, it was mostly "What do you want to drink?" ;-)

Kenny.

Saturday 3rd February 2018 - Moot

This moot was very Piscean, lots of things going in opposite directions. The six nations has just started and the rugby crowd had taken over any pub with a tv.

After arriving late for the previous moot I over compensated and was ridiculously early forcing a pre-moot visit to the Dagda to check it out and have a pint. Back across the road and still first in. No draught beer, the cider had run out, so the choice was bottled Weiss beer. Wandered upstairs and it was busy. Noted that I was the only person not connected to a laptop and the place had the rousing atmosphere of a funeral parlour. Keith arrived and informed me that we were at the big tables with the sensible seats and not the low wheely table and comfy sofas.

Jean arrived completing the PF crew and after a quick discussion on the lack of punters Keith and I removed one of the tables to make it a bit more intimate. The Haddington crew arrived and I had to explain that all the people with laptops were logged on to the the live web cast of the moot ;-) I decided that now being fifty minutes late it was time to get the official part of the moot started and out of the road. Introductions were brief.

Of course as soon as I started various bods arrived. One was forced to consider the possibility, however likely, that said persons, who cannot be named while the issue remains unresolved, had deliberately, and with malice aforethought, arrived late hoping, in vain as it turned out, to avoid the dreaded and interminable admin. Or they may have just finished work. Nayless, I endeavoured to resist such behaviour and started again. The introductions took longer with nine persons.

There was talk of a new moot starting in Crammond, upcoming films for which it appeared that I might have got the incorrect dates, workshops at Otherworld, offers of talks, news of book releases, prospective outings and sundry others. Admin complete, it was on to the interesting part and a talk by Jean about Imbolc.

By the time we were leaving there was hardly anyone else in the pub which is odd considering that the last time it had started to get busy later on. Moot complete, goodbyes to the sensible ones heading home, and six of us headed to the Dagda. Accepted the polite offer of a table from a couple of people who had made the honourable decision to vacate the premises. More chat and beer.

Kenny.

Sunday, 21st January 2018 - Outing

There was to be a double bill at the Filmhouse comprising "The Devil Rides Out" and "To the Devil a Daughter". Undeterred by seasonal weather I arrived at the cinema an hour early to sample the delights of the bar and provide a meeting point. I was so impressed by the wide variety of breakfasts on offer and the apparent enthusiasm of the many people obviously enjoying them that I considered that in future it might be worth indulging provided that I could get a table. By this time the cctv was showing people arriving in the snow and I was concerned that I might be the only person to make it. As it turned out there were seven people in our group though not all from the moot. It was a treat to watch films on the big screen and as described they were "Undoubtedly silly, but also unsettling in their own way" (that's the films and not the moot!). The only down side was that by the time they had both completed it was around six at night on a Sunday and given the weather no-one seemed to have the enthusiasm for more beer. Personally, I think that this would have made for a great "late night double feature picture show" as they say in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Kenny.

Saturday, 6th January 2018 - Moot

The weather was surprisingly mild for January but that didn't stop me being late for the moot. The place was pretty much deserted apart from the mooters. Or is it mootees ? Or mootants ? What is the collective noun for a group of people who attend a moot ? Never mind, at least it distracted you away from the comment that I was late.

A new year, a new venue, and three new people at the moot. They almost outnumbered the regulars! There was much chat once we had got the boring admin thing out of the road and did a couple of news items. I even got an offer of a talk by one of the newcomers! By this time Harry's was filling up and a move was in the offing. Goodbyes said and then Jacqui, Keith and myself went across to the Dagda for one. Only one please note. There was much in the way of interesting and informative chat and after we'd each bought the others one it was time to leave. Three of us, one round each, three in total or a triple aspect. Pagan arithmetic at its best.

Here's to the good old Goddess!

Kenny.

Saturday, 7th October 2017

At last, I'm back in Edinburgh and house hunting for a permanent base. Typically this coincides with most of the regulars being away to Orkney for a handfasting.

Timing!

Anyhow, in order not to upset anyone else who might have been planning to come along I decided to continue with the moot since everyone knows that it always happens on the first Saturday of every month.

Except August because of the festival.

and sometimes September for the same reason.

and January if it's too close to New Year.

and May if it's too close to the PF Conference.

. . . apart from that, it's always on the first Saturday of the month and it always takes place in the Meadow Bar.

Except when it changes it's name.

or goes up in flames.

or is closed for renovation.

or is just plain closed.

I see that you're beginning to get the picture. Let's be polite and call it "eclectic".

Thanks to Claire for putting Otherworld Books at our disposal and to all the people who made it along. It was a pleasure to see you all.

Ryrie's turned out to be not too bad for the after moot social too!

Kenny.

Saturday, 4th March 2017

We're back at the Cumberland for a trial period of several months lured by the promise of the use of the private downstairs room and a reserved table upstairs afterwards.

So much for the theory. I arrived at the venue with the speaker having cancelled and no private room due to staffing issues so it looked like the crisis management course would come in handy. Ho hum!

We had the use of the small room upstairs which had been reserved for us and all it took was to eject the really cute young puppy and it's owners. Soppy little thing, and the puppy wasn't any better !

I had volunteered myself to do the talk on "The Elements" which was cobbled together at the last minute so the signs weren't auspicious. My thanks to the various others who were volunteered to read small passages and the perseverance of the moot members putting up with a talk in a rather noisy area.

Kenny.

Saturday, 1st October 2016

It was a return to what was the Jekyll & Hyde or the Hanover Tap as it is now known. I had already pretty much given up any thoughts of having a talk or doing anything much at all since we would be in a public area.

As it turned out there were more people than I was expecting. That wasn't a problem as such since we had been reserved a couple of long tables. It wasn't long before I discovered the down sides. A long table means that some people are far away and probably felt a bit remote. That chap Arthur knew all about socially inclusive tables. Since we were up against a wall I upset a lot of people whenever I wanted to go to the bar/toilet/stretch my legs. When I leaned back I was against a bare brick wall which soon chilled my back. While we're at it why take a great selection of real ales and craft beers and route them through a chiller? Seriously, it's miserable enough in this country without the need for chilled drinks. All it does is kill the taste though that is an advantage for lager. Food was fine but the special offers have changed.

Okay, rant over. Why couldn't they just have reserved us our old tables? Suffice to say that the place would be usable for a social but not for talks. However, that describes pretty much any bar.

All we need is a bar which does round tables, real ale, good food, has a private room, a projector and sound system for films,....

My thanks to Keith for making the arrangements and Jacqui for the impromptu talk.

Kenny.

Saturday, 3rd September 2016

It was back to the Cumberland and time to make some plans for the future. I think that people are getting used to the way that our moot works, or, all too frequently, doesn't go according to plan. Perhaps referring to a sheet of indecipherable scribbles as "a plan" is a tad ambitious. Oddly, there seemed to be an inordinate amount of optimism and suggestions were arriving quicker than I could add to the aforementioned scribbles.

The rough plan was to return to what was the Meadow for the next moot and to have a social moot on the third Satyrday of the month. Of course since then it was found that we won't be going to the former Meadow but I'm trying to cling on to the rest of the plan. Hopefully we'll be doing more day trips and may even get the Pagan Film nights up and running again. All we need is various people to put in a lot of hard work and then I can casually take the credit. No, I didn't think so either.

The social moots should be relatively easy to organise with the main task being to pick a venue. It is quite likely that we will take the opportunity to try out various venues for the social so you have my apologies in advance. All that I can suggest is that you keep an eye on the Next Moot page. The first one is likely to be on the 15th October so if you have any suggestions for a venue then let me know and we'll consider it for future use.

Thanks to Keith for sorting the venue and it was nice to catch up with those who made it along.

Kenny.

Saturday, 6th August 2016

With all venues in use for the Edinburgh festival we decided to have an away day and went to the Aberdour festival. After relief at there being no rail strikes on the day it was somewhat galling to encounter delays totalling 3 hours on a day return. I can only hope that all of the others fared better.

By the time I got to the starting point in the bar at the Aberdour hotel I was an hour and a quarter late and, not surprisingly, the others had moved on. I ordered a drink and started texting for an update on their location. Needn't have bothered as when I glanced out the window I was looking at the Green Witch shop and soon enough Alan appeared looking like he was suffering an overdose of retail therapy. I started waving and he did his best to ignore me before joining me for a pint. I told the others that we'd catch up with them at the swords. We finished our drinks and then set off to find them at which point we discovered that neither of us knew where we were supposed to be going. Typical. An enquiry at a local shop coupled with my recollection of a marquee glimpsed approaching the station had us legging it along a path and down a road where we caught up with the others.

The display of swords and their use was taking place just outside the marquee which on closer inspection housed a stage, lots of tables, and a bar, naturally. We watched the display until rain stopped play and we retired to the comfort of a table inside and chatted.

All too soon it was time for me to head back to the station so Nica and Colin were sent along to make sure I left town. We were too early for our trains so we stopped off at the other bar.

Thanks to Jacqui for suggesting the trip and Keith for organising things.

Kenny.

Saturday, 2nd July 2016

With renovation/demolition of the Jekyll & Hyde in full swing I decided to head into Edinburgh early which was probably just as well. The queen was opening parliament, there was a parade in the High Street, a gay pride march and rumours of some sort of demonstration elsewhere. Ah, the joys of our capital city! Just to cap it off there was a sudden and very heavy, but mercifully short, downpour which forced me to seek refuge in a handy pub en route to the venue.

We were in the Cumberland Bar and, along with the afore mentioned festivities, that may go some way to explaining the lack of numbers. We had to spread out to fill the small room and justify the booking. Since there was no speaker we used the news items as a basis for discussion and did our best to enjoy ourselves. Needless to say there was concern expressed about our future venue. On a more positive note, uncertainty is one of the few constants that the group has and it keeps the prophets busy.

Kenny.

Saturday, 4th June 2016

Lots of chat inspired by the Meadows Fair amongst other things. A bit of a bombshell to discover that the pub has changed hands and is being renovated next month and then in use for the festival the next again. It looks like the Meadow Moot will be returning to it's nomadic ways with it's rousing chant of "we'rethehella'we!"

Alan's talk on "Totem Animals" was informative and spiced with his usual brand of humour. "What am I ?" "You're a dog." Oh dear, subtle it was not.

On a more positive note some of our members decided to be proactive and got the process of renovation started.

Kenny.

Saturday, 7th May 2016

I couldn't make it down to Edinburgh for this one but I was informed that it went well. My thanks to Jean for running the moot at short notice and to Jan for her talk on "Dragon Magic".

Kenny.

Saturday, 2nd April 2016

Busy moot for Lindsay's talk on "Stone Circles" and we even managed to keep Alan occupied building a model of Stonehenge. Thanks to both of them for their constructive efforts.

Kenny.

Saturday, 5th March 2016

Thanks to Wendy for her interesting talk on Candle Burning. Her notes for the talk can be read by following the link.

Kenny.

Saturday, 30th January 2016

Continuing this years habit of not holding the moot on the first Satyr Day of the month we moved this one back a week which means it was a mere three weeks since the last time that we met. Consequently there were fewer news items than normal and less gossip. Yeah, right.

Instead of having a talk we had a visit from a student historian with an interest in paganism and more specifically Wicca. Those of us non-Wiccans breathed a sigh of relief and moved out of the way to allow a thorough interrogation to take place. We were all somewhat disappointed at the lack of thumbscrews and bonfires and decided that history isn't as much fun as it could be. Well, the poor girl's still learning after all.

The chat continued into the evening before the impending lack of public conveyance encouraged us to investigate a rather soggy outside world.

Kenny.

Saturday, 9th January, 2016

After missing the last two moots I finally made it along. Apologies were offered but a voice like mine is advantageous by it's absence when it comes to carol singing.

Even although we did our best to confuse them by moving the moot to the second Saturday of the month, people still turned up. A couple of news items and lots of gossip was necessary to bring me up to speed. Tales of stone circles on Orkney, top secret shops in Edinburgh and flooding in between. Our news readers did their usual sterling job and we were ready for a break.

Suitably refreshed we settled down to enjoy a talk by Jean on Paganism. Whilst that may sound a bit run of the mill it is remarkable how much we take for granted, how diverse Paganism is, and how much some concepts are challenging. It's worth while doing regularly just to remind ourselves. This led to a discussion of various topics including, but not restricted to, re-incarnation, the devil, tarot, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and language. Educational and informative. Well, at least the speaker was.

My thanks to Jean for offering to do the talk. She offered after I volunteered her. The moot depends on volunteers.

Oh, and the word that I was trying to remember is "set". According to "The Most Amazing Book Of Useless Information Of Them All" this word has the highest number of separate definitions in the English language according to the "Oxford English Dictionary". One hundred and ninety two. No, seriously, 192!

Kenny.

Saturday, 3rd October, 2015

Back to normal this month and I think that we just made double figures. No running around looking for seats this time though we did face some stiff competition from the rugby.

After the usual introductions and admin there seemed to be some confusion as to the current status of the Portobello moot. There was a bit of discussion regarding the South Side Social (formerly the Meadow Bar) and some people expressed the opinion that they missed the visits to the Dagda bar. For those who were looking confused we had to explain that when the moot business was finished we used to vacate the Meadow and cross to the opposite side of the road to the Dagda for the apres moot social thus engaging both female and male deities. Rather than missing the ambiance it would appear that the longing was down to missing the exotic mulled wine. If there is no Portobello moot on the third Saturday then perhaps a return to the Meadow and Dagda would fill a gap. I'd like to revisit the idea of pagan cinema at some point but we'll see what happens.

There was no speaker arranged for this moot so I had brought a few news articles and hoped that they would prompt some discussion. I shouldn't have worried as they were still going when I had to bale out early to catch my train. I can confirm that the moot was more fun than the train.

Kenny.

Saturday, 12th September, 2015

The moot had to be delayed by a week due to the tail end of the Festival so I was expecting more confusion than usual but as it turned out the biggest problem was running out of seats due to the number of people who turned up. My thanks to all of those who travelled through from other areas. It was great to see you all!

For some reason there seemed to be various Monty Python references hijacked for our own use and renamed Monty Pagan. I think that it started with an innocent enough query regarding the prevalence of large beards amongst Western males. It was suggested that perhaps the males concerned were trying to protect themselves by confusing any Islamic terrorists by looking like them. This raised a demand for female equality. The suggestion of head scarves was rejected so a possible alternative was the use of false beards as employed by those attending the stonings. It went downhill rapidly from there with unsightly squabbles between the Pagan Front of Judea and the Judean Pagan Front.

After the break calm returned as I got stuck in about a talk on morality and how pagans formulate their own version. No, really we did. I know that it's not the sort of subject which crops up at conferences and it is unlikely to ever be popular but I was quite glad to get through it unscathed and unstoned. To be honest, people seemed to respond to it quite well even if it does sound a bit off putting. The outline of the talk is now in the Talks section so you can click here.

With the official business over the socialising began. In honour of our guests an impromptu parting ceremony was performed based on an ancient Celtic ritual leave taking. Or maybe it was The Grand Old Duke of York ;-)

Kenny.

Saturday, 4th July, 2015

That seems a long time ago.

I made it down to Edinburgh in good time having spent the journey writing notes for a talk as I had been informed the previous day that our speaker wouldn't make it. I needn't have worried since on arriving at the J&H I was informed that we didn't have the room either!

There seemed to be more people than usual and I suspect that they were psychically attracted by my embarrassment of having no room or speaker. A large table through the back was commandeered and we set too trying to have a meeting in a public space and talking over the sound system. I put my bad mood to good use and demanded subjects for talks from those present. Surprisingly, that worked and I was scribbling to keep up.

It was clear that doing a talk was out of the question so I co-opted various others into reading out a few news items and hoped that would provide fuel for discussion as the socialising began. That only left one question :-

What do heathens call people who don't believe in their gods ?

Kenny.