Category Archives: Newsletter

Annual Report

October 5, 2022Activism, Newsletter, ReportCommunitySam Webster

Dear Friends of the Pantheon Foundation,

The last few years have been quiet ones for the Foundation, and as a consequence we have not sent out regular bulletins or communiques. We have been researching and contemplating what to do with the donations given to the Foundation — a central concern of ours — in support of our religious community. We asked this distribution for suggestions and we researched other groups with similar aspirations to ours, but no appropriate beneficiary was found due to legal and ethical constraints. Being unable to find any suitable non-profit entity to give the funds to that would fulfill the Foundation’s mission of building and strengthening our Pagan community, for which we were given the donations, we found ourselves at something of a loss on how to proceed.

In earlier efforts the Foundation promoted the idea of the power of the coin, for which we received not a little criticism. The coin as the elemental tool of Earth is peculiar in its ability to grow, that is to accrue power over time, as well as combine with other coins and create even greater power. This is the power of community and collective action. This momentum is precious and not to be wasted. From these considerations the Pantheon Foundation Board has decided to suspend its planned work of fiscal sponsorship and that form of community development, as well as other initiatives we undertook in the past, including scholarships and online conferences. The community has made it clear it does not desire such services from the Foundation. Nonetheless we are left with something over $6,000 of donor funds, which are unusable in any other way.

Nonetheless we have hope. We have hope in a Pagan future, where we can use our collective strength to support and enrich our spiritual community. Unfortunately that is not today, so we will plan for tomorrow.

We have made the decision — that we hope you will agree with us to be a sound one! — to invest this money, shifting it into the future, where it will become more, and therefore more useful. It will be invested in a Calvert socially responsible fund, one of the oldest and most reliable ethical investment vehicles, putting it to good use while earning interest will add to its value. At $6,000 we can only purchase a ‘commercial’ product, which is not actively managed, so our goal will be to increase this amount to more than $10,000 where a professional manager will be set to maximize its value.

The Board hereby publishes its final resolution for the Foundation, here

The Board of the Foundation will take on the responsibility of administering the Fund for now. If other people contribute, they get a proportionate voice. As time goes on, our organization will mature, responding to the needs of the participants for foci or governance. Immediately, the Board will report the relevant numbers as the primary content of this Annual Report henceforth, as these duties will be the on-going operations of the Foundation until such time as the Fund becomes operational. We will also have an annual meeting announced through these channels if you wish to get involved.

Currently, we have exactly $6347.12, a round $6k in the Calvert Fund and the rest as cash in the Foundation’s bank account. To this bank account is regularly being added small deposits from Amazon.Smile. Through the Amazon Smile program, you can select a beneficiary organization, and each time you make a purchase at Amazon, they will make a small donation to your chosen recipient. (Go to https://smile.amazon.com/ for more information on how to use this service.) The Pantheon Foundation participates in this program and, if you buy things from Amazon and if you so desire, please use the Smile site and designate the Foundation as a beneficiary. It costs you nothing, but the future will thank you for putting aside a wee bit with each purchase you make.

Each and all of you, and any other person of good intent, wishing to contribute to this Pagan Future Fund is welcome to do so, and as the Foundation is still a religious 501c3 nonprofit, with all of its paperwork up to date, all donations are tax deductible. The faster we can get the balance to $10,000, the faster it will grow, thereafter being managed.

To what end? Why should we do this? We’ll let this money add to itself for a decade, while those who would nurture this future contribute to it. After that decade, the Board, or whatever successor governance holds jurisdiction, will decide if it is time to use the Fund, in part or in whole, and for what purpose. The Board or its successor will be responsible for the proper and effective use of the Funds for the mission of the Foundation, to the benefit of the Pagan community.

As we all look toward the future and inevitable evolution of this organization, I am poignantly reminded of its inception and the lofty but practical purpose for which it came into being. I therefore want to address you on a more personal note.

As the Executive Director and originator of this project, my sole intention in building this organization has always been to create a means whereby the community in which I’ve lived all my adult life might articulate its power in the larger world effectively, taking its place as one of the Great Religions, influencing the world for good, which for the last nearly 600 years it has. The Foundation is a communitarian project, and I’m committed to decentralized authority structures, as well as consensus decision making. However, to get something built usually requires at least one person who will drive it into being, and for this project I’ve been willing to be that person, that driver, together with my fellow board members.

I’ve also been putting my money where my mouth is, as the saying goes. I invested a great deal of my personal financial resources to jumpstart the Foundation, anticipating that the fees generated from fiscal sponsorship and other endeavors would allow me to be repaid. Given that this didn’t happen, a natural choice would be to shut down the corporation and pay off what debts it could, ceasing operations. The amount currently in the Foundation’s bank account would in no way compensate me or repay me for my original personal investment.

However, I can’t justify refilling my pockets when there is a collection of funds all donated for a purpose. When that collected power could make something good—if not now, then at some future time—it should stay dedicated to that purpose. That reflects my values. So I’m forgiving the entirety of the Foundation’s debt to me, and taking only a $4,000 tax deduction. I’m also making an immediate donation of $500 to the Fund. This is all too important to waste. Some people, particularly in our community, find matters of money somehow to be distasteful or demeaning. To me all is holy, the rest mostly depends on what you do with it. I see no justifiable reason to abandon one of our great Elemental Tools, called the disk, or pentacle, but also the coin. This is an era in which money is the most abstract and universal power that humans regularly wield. I want my values represented in action. Do you? Few things can make reality happen in the way that money can. Every contribution is a step towards making a future safe for Pagans. If and when you are able to make charitable contributions, I hope you will remember the Pantheon Foundation.

I will close with a final thought: people asked me why we named the organization a foundation. I reminded them of the Foundation in Isaac Asimov’s famous trilogy of the same name, and its purpose: to prepare for a coming dark age and thereby shorten it. Is there any doubt as to why we need to take steps and plan for the future?

With my best wishes,

Sam Webster and the Board of Directors
Pantheon Foundation

Pantheon Foundation Annual Report 2018

December 16, 2018Newsletter, ReportSam Webster

2018 has been a quiet year for the Foundation. We have supported our fiscal sponsorees, mostly the OSOGD. But the ebb tide eventually returns to flow, and action follows quietude.

For the past year members of the Foundation have been dreaming and planning for a new event. Here in Northern California, since the end of the Ancient Ways festival at Harbin Hot Springs, we have not had a pan-Pagan outdoor gathering. After many discussions with folks we met at Ancient Ways ‘back in the day’ and new friends from PantheaCon and from the various organizations of Pagan and polytheistic folk, we know it is time to create a new one: SunWard Gathering, to be held March 28-31 at Saratoga Springs outside Ukiah, California. This event will be the major Foundation project for the 2019 year, collaborating with our sponsorees and especially the OSOGD, so much of this annual report is devoted to it, as we look ahead to the future.

SunWard Gathering is…

to draw together our community of fellow Polytheists, Pagans, Witches and Magi,
to gather our strength in this time of great need,
to learn from each other by sharing and listening,
to cultivate the good, to clear away and transform the bad,
to share good food and drink, art, and laughter.

Our focus is religious and on the Gods and Goddesses we have built long relationships with, but we welcome all who come to respectfully share our event for our goal is building community. All too often we experience each other through the screen of computer or phone. How different it is when our interlocutors are right before us!

In the manner of the Twilight and Spiral Gatherings, our main rituals will be a thematically connected cycle with opening, main, and closing rites. Outside of those rites we will also have a cycle of offerings made at Dawn, Noon, Sunset and Midnight, to keep the Divine Ones close. Saturday’s main ritual will feature altars built to each Deity, or Deity-complex, or Pantheon, or Principle, we hold dear, and we will move among them to meet their Inhabitants, make connections and receive Their blessings.

In addition to the religious focus, we aim also to provide a setting in which attendees can meet in heart-space, so there will be time set aside each morning for such connection. The schedule will include brunch, time for teaching, and a cocktail/mocktail hour before dinner in the manner of a symposium (think drinking games with philosophical discourse) with a knotty question to inspire the conversation. Drumming and music are welcome!

Our goal for this year is creating the container with less emphasis on specifying the content and more on opportunities for creatively meeting the Gods. In keeping with our focus, we are looking for teachings that center on the Gods and how to work with Them.

We have found a lovely venue for this springtime, sun-ward gathering, the Saratoga Springs Retreat Center (https://saratogasprings.com) 20 miles outside of Ukiah. It offers a variety of comfortable, attractive accommodation, ritual, and meeting spaces, including a fire circle and roomy hot tub.

The team that is putting this together comes out of the OSOGD, along with collaborators from the broader Northern California Pagan Community. The Foundation is providing administration and financial support and oversight. Tickets are available through Eventbrite and through FaceBook, where most of our communications are happening. Just search for ‘sunward gathering’.

As mentioned at the start of this Report, SunWard Gathering is the Foundation’s main project for this upcoming year. We are also in discussion with various Pagan scholars around the country to start an academically focused conference that would move around the country and publish a collection of the papers presented at the event so that what is learned is shared and preserved. The coming year has much potential with these exciting projects!The Pantheon Foundation’s mission is “to provide organizational support for the practice of Pagan religion and the fostering of Pagan Ministry. To study the history, promote the culture, and advance the social welfare of Pagans and the Pagan community.” With a new festival on the calendar, and plans for a conference, we believe we are fulfilling that mission. We hope that you support this work and will join in the maturation and development of our religious community. And, come join us at SunWard!