2023 Paths

Rekindling Community through Music, Song and Story

Facilitators: Taica Patience and Leigh

Once upon a time, very long ago right now, the people circled to sing and tell stories together as they always have….

We come together once again around the hearthfires, allowing our connection to Earth, Spirit and each other to flow through us as we play, listen and create. Expressing our souls . Joining together to express our souls with music, song and story, we will strengthen the threads, rekindling our beloved community. Music is for everyone, from complete beginner to seasoned musician-there are no wrong notes, harmony is anything your neighbor isn’t singing. Our focus will not be performance, but rather soul expression to bless and be blessed. This will be a healing space for those with past musical wounding. We invite you to join us with your voices and instruments! What is story? How are we story people? What are the many forms of story? Which stories within us long to be told? What stories lure us beyond the edges of our awareness? What are the false core beliefs stalking us? What are the stories that have become triggers within us? Do qualities like blame, shame, compassion, forgiveness and presence influence our stories? Which stories do we want to compost or rewrite to grow into our soul-longing?

How do we use our words and our questions to invite and welcome the story of another? What happens when others listen deeply to our stories? What are the stories that we tell ourselves and each other that heal and re-knit us, what are those that do not? How do our stories shape our experience and reality? What is the deeper pulse connecting us to right now? What are the new stories we want to tell and call in together? Which stories can we imagine to create a world where everyone belongs and no one is left behind? Which stories do we choose to take in? How are we part of the story of the wild living land and the unseen beings whispering in our ears? How can our stories align us with our deep intent, the earth and the Divine?

Taica Patience I had a quasi-nomadic upbringing with a mostly single mother, peppered with difficulty and dusted with magic. My life has been colored by the lens of living in the liminal spaces between race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, ability, neurovariance and culture. I have lived a life of using experiences, boldly cracking them open like an egg, to seek the gold hidden within as nourishment for healing and growth on the journey of a modern day mystic. I have been a Life Coach, Spiritual Guide, Healer, Ordained New Thought Minister and Artist. In them all, my deep intent is to call in growth, healing, connection, and ultimately Joy. Priestessing and facilitating the emergence of the innate balance and love in people, groups and the world are my passions. I live a joyful yet rooted life of deep meaning in nature; pulling back the layers to reveal the utter beauty and real magic of being alive. I have some knowledge in many areas and am grounded and compassionate.

Leigh (she/her): I am devoted to mystery, the wild beings of this beautiful earth, liberation and social & environmental justice. My magical focus includes dream magic, plant magic, thresholds & guiding, divination, trance journeying & nature as a mirror to the soul. My path has been guided primarily by direct experience in the wild and open hearted conversation with the land.

Healing at the Hearth: Transforming Conflict in Community

Facilitators: Acorn and wildRose

Together we gather around our communal Hearth, faces aglow and ready to share a journey of grounded presence, listening, accountability, and transformation. From a foundation of seeing all people as whole, loving, wounded beings, we will offer magical, consent-based, trauma-informed conflict transformation strategies for preventing and addressing interpersonal conflict. Drawing from the rich tradition of Restorative Circles, as well as from our own experiences adapting these practices, we will offer a flexible, structured methodology for hosting conflict transformation circles (facilitated conversations). We will enlist magical technologies to support our journey, including grounding, circle casting, chanting, invoking allies in the work, purification, and divination. This Path will include daily practice in reflective listening and will culminate in an opportunity to practice hosting/participating in a conflict transformation circle.

We feel that leaning into conflict and addressing it sensitively and constructively, and in a timely fashion, is essential for the health of our communities. Comparatively, when conflict is avoided, or engaged with in harmful ways, disconnection from one another, and our deepest ideals, often results. By sharing tools and methodologies for navigating conflict, we hope to help VWCampers feel empowered to prevent, deescalate, hold space for, and move forward from conflict. We see this as a path of (re-)connection that makes space for each of us, our complex experience sets, and our humxn relationships, to remain together around our community hearth, rekindling flames from embers, even when conflict has existed, or may still exist.

Acorn is a queer cultural worker, cook, and parent seeking to grow the better world our hearts know is possible. They are the co-founder of Garden Gate Conflict Transformation and have been hosting conflict transformation circles since 2015. Their hearthkeeping work is also deeply connected to community food through their cooperative business, K is for Kitchen, and its sister project, the Community Supported Kitchen. Acorn is deeply grateful for the intergenerational magical community of Vermont Witch Camp, and is eager to be of service and to share this space with their witchlet, Salvia Hope.

wildRose plants the seeds of a more resilient world by sharing skills & knowledge needed to root well anywhere. Fae identify as a trans & queer cultural worker, Earth-mover, and community hearth-keeper. wildRose brings lenses of ecology, magic, and justice to bear while sharing practices that tranifest greater love, growth, and healing in the world. Fae enjoy cultivating feelings of Home & belonging, while sharing delicious food & deep breaths with friends of all stripes. In her wake, she tends to leave increasingly fertile gardens, well-fed communities, and growing, shared visions of regenerative culture. Faer humxn ancestors hail from the many connected lands & peoples around the ‘Between the Worlds’ (Mediterranean) Sea. gardengateconflict.mystrikingly.com

Combined Youth/Pixie Path (ages 1 - 12)

Facilitators: Erin Cerulean  & ? 

(Feeling called to co-facilitate? Apply here)

Erin Cerulean (she/her): has spent the last thirteen years working with kids from 0-18 in a medium sized suburban public library in Western Mass. Her magical practices tend to express themselves through the domestic arts: cooking, needlework and gardening. She can often be found reading a book while cuddling a cat.

I have been a youth librarian for around 14 years, mostly in a public library setting where I have worked with kids from babies to teens and families. I have facilitated all kinds of library programs for youth from storytime and crafts to book clubs to technology programs. I have mentored teen volunteers and employees. I am skilled at anything related to kids and books, doing arts and crafts, singing, dancing and generally playing. I am a good listener when someone is having big feelings.