ConVocation is a convention of the many mystical spiritual paths and faiths and the people that follow them who desire to teach each other and promote fellowship among all esoteric traditions.
Since 1995, this 4-day event has brought together over 100 classes and rituals presented by local instructors, internationally renowned guest speakers and authors. Along with workshops, ConVocation offers over 35 tables of merchandise in our Merchant Room, an Art Show and the largest indoor Drum Circle in the Midwest.
For 2022 Combining the two Sephiroths - Tiferet and Netzach - gives us the completion of a cycle. Tiferet is about finding balance or the AND in life - black and white, right and wrong, etc. Shades of gray really. Netzach is about coming out of hardship through endurance into completion. By combining the two we complete the cycle between these two sephiroths and move ConVocation forward in time with the world around us and in step with our community.
As a proposed combined theme - Finding our Balance, Maintaining our Center.
Tiferet is also “balance,” as it’s the balance between chesed (love) and gevurah (discipline) and endurance is also important in balance. The endurance of Netzach allows us to maintain the center of our balance found in Tiferet, whereas Tiferet allows us to find the endurance within Netzach.
This can be seen in our world and within our community fairly easily - the massive social, political, physical upheaval of recent times has radically changed the perspective and future of our country and our worlds. We are striking a new balance globally and demanding that it be maintained. We are also learning how to endure through the worst global health crisis in over 100 years with the pandemic - it is a trial by fire that most of the people currently alive have never had to face and the stresses of it are causing a rapid and critical examination of the social contract.
By combining the two sephiroths we take two steps forward allowing our community to come together to both celebrate and mourn the past while keeping our eyes on a better tomorrow.
The MEC Board has decided that in light of the rising number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, along with the logistics of attempting to hold a safe and socially distanced in-person convention, or trying to hold an online convention that lives up to the standards we require for ConVocation; we will be postponing ConVocation 2021. We know this is upsetting and disappointing to many of you - it is to us as well.
For those Merchants, Artists, and Teachers who have submitted classes or applications for 2021 - we will be reaching out to you all with information on each of your situations shortly. We wish to bring you all with us into 2022.
We are excited to announce that February 24th to 27th 2022 we will be continuing on with our current theme of "Finding Our Balance" and working with the sephiroth Tifferet. We look forward to seeing you all there!
The MEC BOD
***If you reserved a room with the hotel, please make sure you remember to cancel the reservation as soon as possible.***
After further reflection upon our previous statement we (the MEC board) have realized that we were not sufficiently clear on where MEC stands. MEC can not and will not tolerate racism of any kind, explicit or implicit. We stand with and support the fight to end injustice and systemic racism.
In the recent statement MEC posted, we focused on the actions MEC has committed to in continuing to educate and better ourselves and our community. We hear and acknowledge that in making that our focus we buried and undervalued the trauma and the severity of the issues faced by people of color and the importance of Black Lives Matter and related movements. This was not our intention. We Apologize.
The violence, bigotry and disenfranchisement that people of color face and have been facing for centuries cannot be allowed to continue. MEC will continue to strive to meet the goal of eradication of these plagues on our society and in our communities.
Hatred and intolerance have no shelter within our community or at our events and therefore must be actively uprooted. Racists and bigots of all stripes can stay home, they will not be welcome among us.
After further reflection upon our previous statement we (the MEC board) have realized that we were not sufficiently clear on where MEC stands. MEC can not and will not tolerate racism of any kind, explicit or implicit. We stand with and support the fight to end injustice and systemic racism.
In the recent statement MEC posted, we focused on the actions MEC has committed to in continuing to educate and better ourselves and our community. We hear and acknowledge that in making that our focus we buried and undervalued the trauma and the severity of the issues faced by people of color and the importance of Black Lives Matter and related movements. This was not our intention. We Apologize.
The violence, bigotry and disenfranchisement that people of color have to face and have been facing for centuries cannot be allowed to continue. MEC will continue to strive to meet the goal of eradication of these plagues on our society and in our communities.
Hatred and intolerance have no shelter within our community or at our events and therefore must be actively uprooted. Racists and bigots of all stripes can stay home, they will not be welcome among us.
MEC was founded with the goal of making a safe and inclusive community for all as laid out in our mission statement right from the very beginning:
The Magical Educational Council was established for the following purpose: to create community by promoting the sharing of knowledge,experience, and fellowship among people who follow mystical and esoteric traditions.
In order to promote community, we do not include those paths or traditions whose doctrines advocate bigotry and / or violence against others on any basis including but not limited to race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or religion
It is in the core of what MEC is and what we want to provide the community to stand against racism not only at our event, but in our community and in the world. To this end we had planned on using our Spring Town Hall to start an initiative of creating a community wide Diversity Board, however our plans were cut short by the pandemic that has threatened the health and taken the lives of so many.
This has not stopped our plans, but has delayed them. We are committed to continue to have ConVocation be a place for everyone in our community to feel safe, welcome, included and represented. When we can confirm that it will be lawful and safe to host a Town Hall (hopefully in October) we will be making announcements to invite those who want to help us improve ConVocation and all other events, groups and organizations be as representatively diverse as our community truly is.
In the meantime, know that we understand that we CANNOT understand what people of color have experienced in their lives, but we support you, we are listening to you and we are here for you.
Justice for only some is no justice at all. Black Lives Matter
