Paths and Teachers, 2017

PATHS!!! (Scroll down for more info on teachers and facilitators)

~ Elements of Magic (With Zay, Don, and Cathy)

With the art of magic, we deepen our vision and focus our will, empowering ourselves to act in the world. In this class we explore Reclaiming-style magic and ritual by working with the elements of magic: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. Learning from each of these elements, we will explore ritual, creating magical space, working with energy, visualization, trance, chanting, spellcraft, and consensus process. We will weave this traditional Elements coursework into the wilds of Maine and the story of Vasilisa the Beautiful.

Elements is the first of the core courses in the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft and a prerequisite to many others. It is for new and experienced practitioners of magic, and especially anyone hoping to introduce Reclaiming-style ritual to their home community.

Please bring your journal, writing implements, and items representing each of the elements. We also invite you to bring any favorite magical tools or musical instruments. We strongly recommend reading the first six chapters of Spiral Dance before camp.

~ The Gift of Baba Yaga: Facing Power with our Authentic Selves (With Ann and BrightFlame)
We forge connections of deep trust with one another and our Allies (Ancestors, land spirits,
elements, Mysterious Ones) to face power as our authentic selves, and bear the gift from Baba
Yaga that we bring out to the world–conjuring our brightness, our power within, in service to a
just, sustainable world. Using music, movement, trance, aspecting, and the sciences, we will
navigate our fears, our challenges, and trust in our power, our authority to act. This path is
suitable for adults and will be of interest to seasoned witches and those newer to the craft.

~ Dreaming in the Dark Woods Dreaming in the Dark Woods: Dream Magic for Transformation and Sacred Remembering  (With Leigh and Mariah Williams)

What do you long for? Where in your life and in this world do you wish to shine the bright light of Vasalisa’s flaming skull? What stands in the way of our biggest dreams?

Dreams offer us potent, juicy images that can serve as gateways to insight, guidance, healing, vision and creative inspiration. In this path we’ll walk like Vasilisa into the dark woods of our souls. In ritual space we’ll encounter our shadows and embody their gifts. We’ll transmute what no longer serves us and clear space for our creative fire to burn bright as we lean into deeper trust in the wild Life/Death/Life cycle.

Following Guidance, we’ll draw from dreamwork, Active Dreaming, Nature as Mirror, Movement, Journeying, Dream Theatre, Inter-Family Systems, Sound Healing, and ritual to navigate our inner worlds and the spirit world. We’ll retrieve and strengthen our intuition, practice navigating the dark forest, do shadow work and dream our wildest dreams for our lives and this world.

Please bring a journal and pen or pencil. This path is appropriate for all levels, including the person who hasn’t dreamed in years and avid dreamers.

~ Magical Activism: A Path to Change the World (With Noah and Charles Williams

Calling all those who see clearly! Those who see the greed of the cannibal beast called Capitalism through
the stifling fog of patriarchy for what it is: a beast in its final violent throws of death, yet deadly as it clings to the very life it is so desperately consuming!

Calling all those who refuse to look away! Those who feel with the world the fear and the pain of sharp teeth and machinery cutting deep into the lives of the vulnerable and the voiceless, and of the trees and the rivers and the mountains.

Calling all those with blazing hearts! Those who are willing to stand arm in arm with all those in resistance, in defense, and in regeneration both on the front lines and from the alter; Those who would seek magical tools to deepen and broaden their activism.

This path will look at what it means to ground our magic in an ethic of solidarity and mutual aid. We will delve into the tools of magical activism; active grounding, explore making magical containers, erecting energetic protection for ourselves and others, focusing our magic and working the energy of the collective. We will be using the tools of movement, trance, music, role playing, solo, partner and group work.

 

Ritual Facilitation Team

These folks will be supporting the planning and facilitation of rituals during Wild Maine Witchcamp.

Rose May Dance
I took Reclaiming core classes near the beginning, in 1980-81, and formed coven with my core class members. I began teaching classes almost right away, there were only a few of us back then. I was part of the invention of witchcamp so have been doing this work since the early 1980s. I am also a hypnotherapist, easily translating my trance skills into my professional life, upon retiring from my career in AIDS research among injecting drug users. I lived in San Francisco and for 31 years at Black Cat Collective, an anarcha-pagan feminist household, there raising my kid, Kore who is now 21.
My husband Bill and I have now moved to Richmond, CA.

 

Jude Elf: I live for paradigm shifts, lightbulb moments,ecstatic transformative ritual and deep personal magic. I delight in sharing my passion for connecting to the divine through music, dance, and
song.

A life long activist, I love the alchemy of mixing magic with the work of the great turning, combining spell work, stewardship, egalitarian group process, non-violent action, and emancipated sexuality.

I’m a song catcher, fire spinner, green witch and moon dancer, who teaches magic and sacred sexuality, and offers support with rites of passage.

I help organize and teach at Reclaiming Witchcamps including JeWitch Camp, and with Kidsfest, help facilitate large public rituals that gather the community to turn the wheel and honor the seasons. I live at Milkweed Farm, in Northern Vermont where I delight in the fey and elements of nature and foment beautiful revolution through art and community.

 

Path Teachers

These folks will be facilitating Paths at camp.  Path descriptions will be posted here shortly.  We are still getting information on additional paths and teachers so expect to see more here soon!

Don: A Feri Student in the Blackheart line, Don has been incarnate on the planet since 1956, and has been following a spiritual path since the early 1980s when he discovered The Spiral Dance and concurrently found himself involved with the Green Party in Central Florida. He came to Vermont Witchcamp in 2002 for the first time, and has been active in the community since then.  His influences include African drumming, contra dancing, an avid appetite for books, Chaos Magic, Discordianism, Socialism, Deep Ecology, a love of finding things out, and a deep distrust of commercialism/capitalism.  He currently resides in Keene, NH when he’s not traveling to a dance week somewhere on the globe.

Zay Eleanor Watersong: A water witch, drummer, organizer, and indigenous rights activist, Zay Eleanor Watersong has been involved with the Reclaiming Tradition since 2003 and deeply enjoys contributing to the spread of the tradition through the planting of seeds of ideas.  She is grateful to have had the opportunity to connect with Reclaiming witches around the world through the Pagan Cluster and Dandelion Gatherings, and carry on the lineage of teachers.  She arrived accidentally at the Chalice Well on a full moon in 2002 and has been a devotee of the Lady of the Lake ever since, leading her to a career advocating for the cleanup of Onondaga Lake.  She has taught at Free Cascadia Camp and Vermont Witchcamp, and co-founded Reclaiming groups in Ithaca and Syracuse.  She is deeply rooted to the land of upstate New York, the traditional territory of the Onondaga Nation, being the sixth generation of her family to live in Syracuse.   She is part of the Bread and Roses Collective House and gardens, takes on daunting repair work, backpacks and canoes in her spare time.

Cathy: Be it in the concrete jungle of New York City or the quiet of old growth forest, Cathy is fascinated by how humans participate in their ecological systems and express their cultures. Cathy weaves her academic research in art history and landscape architecture with the knowledge she has gained through permaculture and social justice activism. Pulled to live in greater alignment with her passion for creativity and healing, Cathy is in the process of completing a certification in life coaching from the Coaching for Transformation program. An artist, activist, and healer, Cathy has been practicing in the Reclaiming Tradition since 2011. Her first introduction to Reclaiming Witchcraft was an Elements course taught by Zay and Don, so she is especially honored to apprentice teach with such talented mentors. Cathy was an original member of the Syracuse Reclaiming group and currently practices with New York City Reclaiming. In addition to New York City Reclaiming, Cathy regularly participates in Pagan Cluster actions and Reclaiming workshops in the New York City metro area. She is also part of the Vermont Witch Camp community where she has served as a camp organizer. Cathy’s ritual and energy work are informed by her many years of experience with Afro-Brazilian folk music, Aikido, Reiki, and Zen meditation. She is blessed to live in a part of New York City that is surrounded by parks, rivers, and remnant forests where she regularly volunteers, hikes, and kayaks.

BrightFlame is a teacher, writer, priestess and activist. In her forthcoming novel, The Working,  witches must save our planet from the forces that will cause cataclysmic harm—a timely work  that speaks truth through eco‐fiction. She has been part of the Reclaiming Tradition since 1995,  including New York and Vermont Witchcamps, and NYC and Philly Reclaiming communities. She  taught at VWC in 2004 and in 2016 offered workshops and rituals with Starhawk in NYC and  Philadelphia. She has taught and priestessed at large, regional spiritual gatherings, offered  many iterations of Elements of Magic and other Reclaiming core classes, as well as workshops  on sensing and shaping energy, labyrinths, connecting with the Earth, and lots more. See  www.mysmagic.org and follow her @brtflame and www.facebook.com/BrightFlame.1

Ann is a witch and healer and life‐long activist. She is deeply involved in working for peace,  working with veterans, and in working for justice for ALL people. As healer in many traditions  she is also passionate about health care as a human right. She has taught at Spiralheart‐ sponsored WildChild witchcamps and has been part of the Spiralheart community for many  years. She also attended the last New York Witchcamp. She has taught Elements of Magic  several times and is part of Evergreen CUUPS in Princeton NJ, co‐facilitating monthly Moon  Circles as well as rituals for solstices and equinoxes and Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lammas.  With other CUUPS teachers, she has offered iterations of a class on Psychic Gifts. She recently  co‐taught several segments of BrightFlame’s Elements of Magic, Reimagined class. She co‐ wrote what was probably the first street medic curriculum that has evolved wonderfully over  the past 50 years as the medic community has grown.  She is still active in this community, most  recently working with Firefly Action Medical in Philadelphia and connecting by Skype with a  Phoenix group. Ann is a Family Nurse Practitioner

Mariah Williams:  In 1982 when her husband suddenly died and six years later, her next partner experienced extreme childhood sexual abuse memories, the wake-up calls to “pay attention” became incessant. Teachers magically appeared, synchronicities became apparent, spirit guides became available, and intention and trust became more real. She became deeply influenced by teachings of Melanoma Some and Carolyn Myss, Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run with the Wolves, The Work of Byron Katie, the Enneagram and NVC.
Her eclectic healing practice aspires to expand harmony in the energetic and physical bodies via Therapeutic Touch and a mix of bodywork practices; return balance to the neurological system using EFT and EMDR; bring about greater agreement and cooperation within one’s internal psychological family and increase contact with the dream world using IFS and Gestalt techniques. She also coaches HeartSong, a hospice choir in Belfast, ME. She is new but not new to Magical Traditions.

Leigh dreams deep and loves feeding the sacred with shared dance, song and communion with the land. She is a green witch, (menstrual) blood witch and soul midwife who is devoted to Mystery. Her last name means Soul Man in German.
Leigh’s magical practice began when she was a young child and found she could see energy. Her practice has been shaped by her soul’s longings, the land, and by teachers Fran Weinbaum, Shunahsii Rose, Robert Moss, Sonbufu Some, Niyonu Spann, The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, and The Reiki School and Clinic/Usui Reiki Lineage.
Leigh priestesses rituals and Rites of Passage, teaches earth-based spiritual practice and Reiki, and facilitates collaborative group sound healing rituals. She serves in ritual and spirit work leadership capacities for In Sacred Balance, an ongoing community Spirit Work practice. Trained as a massage therapist, Reiki Master, Active Dreaming Teacher, Rites Quest Guide and shamanic practitioner Leigh maintains a professional healing arts practice in Philadelphia and via distance.

Charles Williams: I am a lifelong activist, farmer and wilderness traveler who comes to you from the short grass savannas of the Mississippi river valley. As a lifelong activist, I am committed to healthy communities and a belief that knowing one’s place in the world and working with one’s hands is sacred work.

Over the past three decades, I have been involved in a wide range of activism. My journey has taken me into the streets of countless cities for mass actions and into sacred circles through out the world to do magical direct action. My skill are rooted in action and what I have to teach come from years of doing that work. With a very practical and hands on approach I teach what I know , believing that we do not “practice” magic, instead we do magic and growth our strength and skills form the doing.

Along with my direct action experience, I have the honor of stewarding many pieces of sacred land. I was the land steward at Vermont Witch Camp, Starhawk’s Golden Rabbit Ranch in California and Diana’s Grove sanctuary which was homes of a 20 year Magic and Mystery Schools.

I am a firm beliver that working together we can make a difference and that it is imparitive that we work both in the land of the physica land the etheric. Come join us and learn skills in Magical Activism.

I look forward to coming to Wild Maine Witch camp. May our work this year feed the land that holds us and the spirits that surround us.

For more information about Charlies: https://charlesawilliamsii.com/

Noah Dudley is a long time anti-imperialist activist and Witch. Raised pagan, he has spent the last two decades in and out of war zones working in solidarity with civilian communities under direct assault from different armed actors -be they police, militaries, or paramilitary death squads, or armed vigilantes. He has lived, worked, studied permaculture, and blockaded road ways with Starhawk. At age 15 he met Baba Yaga while living abroad in Russia. Most recently back from Standing Rock, he lives in a small off grid cabin he built deep in the woods of Freedom, Maine, next door to his mom, Anu, who gave him his first doll.