Bio:

Helmut has been the Vendor Coordinator for the Toronto Pagan Conference for the last 3 years. He has also been very active in the Ontario Pagan community with spreading the word about our event and events related to it, such as the Wine, Dine and Divine and the Building Bridges Pub Moot. Helmut is aslo a steadfast supporter of other Pagan events in Ontario such as Kaleidoscope Gathering, WicCan Fest and Hamilton Pagan Pride Day to name a few.

As as blacksmith/artisan and a follower of the Smith's Tradition, Helmut has been crafting ritual tools since 1979. Metal Magic and creation magic has been his field of study with the intent of formulating a working connection between the physical properties of the metal and it’s magical properties. He has been working on a book, recording the oral and compiling the written knowledge of Smith’s Beliefs and Magical knowledge. He is presently building a workspace to allow classed in the old trades and skills, such as blacksmithing and besom making.

Topic:

Nature and Paganism; Open Discussion Group
 As we struggle to create a pagan community how we present ourselves to society around us and to each other is going to be very important. Can we any longer present a unified definition as to what paganism is or are there now too many paths to fit into one definition?
Example:
For many years the standard line to the media was that pagans practice a nature based belief system.
While that maybe true for some, many of the pagan paths have little to do with nature . . .