BCWC 25th Anniversary Paths
Embodied Elements, Spirit Incarnate
with Captain & Synnove
Dancing with the light of
becoming,
becoming,
becoming
mad with spirit incarnate
Do you hear the call of your elemental ancestors?
Are you ready to deepen into your magic and power?
Do you want to passionately embrace each moment and roll around in the elements?
Journey back into the womb with your “sisterbrothers” and experience the elements with fresh eyes. Join us and dance with earth, air, fire, water and spirit as we pray, desire, co-create and set the intentions for our magic. We will dive into each moment, reveling in the present, rolling around in the elements. On this path sweat, silence, mud, water, and sound will be our allies and our tools as we dive deep and listen to our elemental ancestors. Together, we will create ritual, deepen our personal practice and engage the magical tools of the directions. This is a great path for witches who wish to explore the erotic and ecstatic nature of Reclaiming Witchcraft.
The Pentacle of the Elements of Magic is the foundational class of the Reclaiming Tradition, it is recommended if you are new to the craft or to our tradition. If this is your first time at Witchcamp, please join us to be welcomed, seen, challenged and re-membered. We also welcome experienced magic workers to play with us and expand your relationship to the elements.
Pentacle at the Heart of Mystery
with Dawn Isidora and Ashtare
From the very heart of our Reclaiming (and Feri) Tradition, comes the work of the Iron (Sex, Pride, Self, Power and Passion), Pearl (Love, Law, Knowledge, Liberty and Wisdom) and Elemental (Spirit, Fire, Air, Earth and Water) Pentacles. The crystalline pattern of these pentacles reaches out through all five dimensions, mapping all the worlds. Many indigenous, mystical traditions focus on the ability to access our inner realms as the gateway to spirit and evolution. Sometimes called “Shadow” or “Personal” work, the courage to unflinchingly look inward is the witches’ most powerful tool.
Choosing to enter into the sacred magic of our deepest instincts and inner mysteries, we focus on the work of the Iron Pentacle. Seth (expert of individuation) and Nepthys (Queen of the un-seen worlds) guide and mentor us as we explore and acknowledge our true selves. Welcome to the world of magical self-awareness! Then, as we begin to map our movement from Iron to Pearl Pentacle, Isis and Osiris inspire and instruct, as we align ourselves towards the vibration of Pearl Pentacle.
Celebrate the 25th year of BCWC by returning to our roots and the material that has had such a guiding hand in making us who we are. Join us as we work the magic of 5 x 5, revisiting (or meeting for the first time!) this powerful tool that resides at the (black) heart of our tradition.
Prerequisite: Elements of Magic
The Wild Alliance – an Ecstatic Path into Faery
with Willow and Rebecca
Healing ourselves, healing the earth
We’ll gather in the beauty of the green woods to listen deeply to the earth, our bodies and the spirits of nature; to open a portal between the worlds, connecting with deep memories encoded in our original skin and the purpose with which we are here – in this time and place, in this moment of history and the Great Turning. We will listen and open to the wisdom of the ancestors, to the rocks, waters, plants, blood and bones of our bodies, and to the maps the stars have woven for us. We’ll seek alliance and support from the Fae spirits of nature to live the spell of our purpose for the healing of the earth, each other and ourselves. We will become vessels for the wisdom of the earth spirits to speak and guide us into our magic, that we may go out into the world with deep clarity of vision, and an intimate, sustainable relationship with the living spirits of nature.
This path will be steeped in devotion, oracular magic, movement, sound and potentially radical shifts of consciousness. We ask participants to be well versed in self-responsibility, collaborative magic, and grounding excess energy quickly, efficiently and responsibly.
Elements of Magic or equivalent required.
Rite of Passage: Illness as a Healing Journey
with Rose May Dance and ~birch
“Change or be changed,” says the wind. “But change upsets my stomach,” says the vulnerable one sitting in the cozy den. “Then I will help you begin.” And with that the wind blows, the rains flood and in the space of a sneeze the world begins to spin…
That which wounds heals. Together we journey with what ails us in order to claim our vocation, our Calling. At its core, be it physical, social or cultural, illness initiates change. As creative change agents we enthusiastically choose the challenge of uncertainty. This path is structured as a Reclaiming Rites of Passage core class. We will traverse the Hero’s Journey: we will trance alone and together. Working individually, in pairs and groups, using storytelling, playback theatre, ritual aspecting and ancestral magic we will encounter the Shadow-Ally, the one who grips the key to our golden liberation. If inspired, bring a recent dream, a magical tool and your Book of Shadows (notebook) and other creative art materials. We will descend with Osiris. This advanced magical path explores living with illness from the perspectives of radical self-care and self-as-world. Following the currents of our personal mythology we embark, dive into and wrestle with the dark world story with the soul-intention of re-emerging as fiercely loving advocates for new health-inducing ways of being. We walk the path of the Wounded Witch-Healer and offer ourselves to the worlds anew. Through us the story changes.
BCWC 25th Anniversary Teachers
Rose May Dance
I have been in Reclaiming since 1981 or so and originally helped create the Witch Camps, an endeavor of pride and pleasure. I offer healing, ritual creation, and teaching the craft of the wise. I have been practicing alternative healing since 1975. A Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, I practice in San Francisco and Oakland. I find story a rich way to explore, learn, and teach. I am happy to continue this year with the themes we have explored at B.C. Witch Camp, particularly since I was on that first teaching team 25 years ago. I am 64 and raising my second child who is 15. I’m very happy to be of service all around.
Willow Firefly Kelly
I am a lover of the Fae, a seeker of my shadow, a musician, priestess, activist, and student of Life. I am wildly in love with the natural World. I am passionate about co-creating community, magic, art, and music. In my personal practice and in my teaching, I apply tools of exploration, expression, healing and devotion that I have learned from my teachers or developed through my own spiritual quest. I currently live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia with my beloved partner, Crow (another Witch Camp love story!), a yard full of faeries and our incredibly good-smelling cats. I joyfully anticipate the magic of love and transformation that we will create together as we celebrate 25 years of BC Witchcamp!
Dawn Isidora
Guided and inspired by the sacred Elements of life and magic, my own work brings me into alignment and deep connection with the ecstatic current we know as Life Force. I have so many blessings in my life: two wonderful grown sons, my beloved and loving partner, my snug home in Portland, OR, excellent friends both near and far, and work that nourishes me on many levels. In my professional practice I offer spiritual mentorship and counseling – perhaps the metaphorical equivalents to home cooked soup, flashlight or map, and always a compassionate ear. I first became involved with Reclaiming in the early 80′s, while still living in my hometown of San Francisco. Fifteen years later, I attended my first Witch Camp – BCWC 1997. I believe I have attended every camp since, save three – some years as camper, some years as organizer and some years as teacher. My how time flies! Another fifteen years… and I am honored to be sharing this momentous 25th year with you all.
Captain Snowdon
I am committed to deep elemental magic and activism grounded in our bodies. Finding homes in the queer, radical faerie, Reclaiming, sacred sexuality, and gender-queer communities up and down the west coast, I can often be found on or near bodies of water, dancing round fires, covered with mud running through the arbutus trees and singing out of tune. Currently, my magic manifests in private practice counseling as a Sexologist and in igniting SPARC (Victoria’s Sex Positive Art and Resource Center), educating folks about sex and pleasure and writing, and performing about transgender and gender-queer embodiment. In my heart, I live in both Victoria and San Francisco – but mostly in the ocean. I delight when the witches and the radical fae come together, and I’m honoured to be teaching at BCWC 25!
Ashtare
A creatrix of magic and passion, I have been in Vancouver Reclaiming for 20+ years. A lesbian, Jew, single mom, working class woman, and a Crone Amazon, I have learned some hard things in my life. I continue to love learning new things about people, places, concepts, and magic. I feel great love of Mystery in all its forms – all make me take notice. I love ritual, learning, and teaching in a way that decimates hierarchy. I experience wonder when I see others take their power within magical space and in their lives. Immersed in the wild, in the elements, and feeling ecstasy for the green earth, I work to bring this devotion to all my life practices. I am teaching for the second time at camp, and have been on the BCWC org cell for the previous three years.
~birch
I hail from the Avalon, also known as Saltspring Island, B.C. For a decade I have listened for the call to come home to B.C. Witch Camp. My heart leapt when I heard the invitation to dance with the Ancestors and to support the healing of men and boys. As part of a former team of award-winning, feminist social justice educators, we taught 500 youth+/year to support and celebrate women and girls by also attending to the healing of men and boys. I have participated in and developed many trainings for boys and men exploring the medicine of the sacred masculinity in reverence and service to the Divine Feminine. Over the past quarter century, while teaching sacred theatre in Mexico and Japan and across North America, I learned from the Elders that to see our way forward we must first return to the arms of the past. I am proud to be part of today’s counter-culture as a Radical Faery (known as Robin Hood) and as a Reclaiming witch. When teaching creativity at the University of Victoria, B.C., I walk down the aisle of the lecture hall in ancestral dresses and begin each semester with two quotes by the infamous ancestral Radical Fae poet/film maker, James Broughton: “I believe in ecstasy for everybody!” and (written on his gravestone): “Adventure, not predicament.”
Synnove Sunlokken
My magical practice is rooted in the earth and in ecstatic Life Force energy. Each day you will find me connecting with the earth. At home in Seattle, it might be the sight of a weed breaking through a crack in the sidewalk, or a breath of salt air against my skin. The mountains are my second home and the place where it is easiest for me to recharge. “Transforming repression” speaks to me in many ways. In my professional life, I manage diverse technical teams in a collaborative way, breaking down the traditional hierarchy and providing enough support and structure to keep things moving without stifling creativity. I also volunteer as an instructor and mentor for experiential education courses that inspire youth to lead with courage and confidence. I discovered Reclaiming at an Imbolc ritual in 2000 after the “Battle in Seattle” and fell in love with the community, our commitment to activism, and the healing power of our magic. BCWC has been my home camp since 2001 and I am excited to join in crafting another year of transformative magic!
Rebecca
I am a temple dancer, mythmaker, bone gatherer, and student of blood mysteries. In love with all things wild and free, I make magic by listening to and following the language of the waters, the green world, art, and the body in movement. My actions spring forth from these wells of inspiration, and I am dedicated to the work of healing the emotional/physical body, the community body, and the earth body in order to support the continued emergence of a resistant and regenerative cultural web which is free from dependence on the life-denying ways of the current industrial-growth society. Called by the stars to ‘speak for the earth in her/my language’, my magic is guided by ancestors, descendants and spirits of place, and focuses on the tools of the arts, dance, poetry, prayer, wild magic, herbalism, and nature awareness. I hold a master’s degree in expressive arts therapy and have a folk healing practice in Portland, Oregon.
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