Off to NOTOCON!

This weekend I'll be attending the National Ordo Templi Orientis Convention, also known as NOTOCON, in Detroit, Michigan. This the eighth biannual conference in a series that started in 1997, and I'm one of a small group of initiates who have attended all of them. I still remember back in the late 1990's when the idea of having a conference was being discussed, and apparently at the time there were some who worried that if initiates from all over the country ever got together for a big event afterwards half of them would resign and never be seen again.

This possibility was apparently discussed seriously at the time, though given the ongoing success of the national conferences it seems laughable now. In fact, most of the order members who attend the conferences are pretty cool people despite the contentious reputation that Thelema has acquired over the years and I always come away having enjoyed my weekend immensely. In general I'm not that fond of traveling, but for NOTOCON I'm always willing to make an exception.

One of the things I really appreciate about these conferences is the excellent overall quality of the various presentations and rituals. Two years ago the one that impressed me the most was Colin Campbell's presentation on John Dee's Sigillum Dei Aemeth, in which he laid out a pretty convincing case that Dee made a couple of errors in constructing his Sigillum to the Enochian angels' specifications. Normally when people make "discoveries" like that about the Enochian system they wind up being a matter of interpretation and conjecture, but Campbell's presentation was particularly solid. His whole argument was published in The Magic Seal of Dr. John Dee which was unfortunately a limited edition that is now out of print. I picked up a copy as soon as I got back from the last conference, but for the sake of Enochian studies in general I hope that at some point a mass market version becomes available. It's really good stuff.

I'm leaving tonight after work and will be back home late Sunday evening. Next week I plan on picking up a few of the stories I missed during the Mercury afflictions of last month. Have a great weekend, and if any of you are going to be attending NOTOCON I suppose I'll see you out there.