Outreach Letter 2011 - Feasting the Ghosts

Free Cascadia Witchcamp, July 10th - 16th

The Witches, Activists, Organizers, and Visionaries of Free Cascadia Witchcamp invite you and your community members to come to the wild lands of Cascadia this summer, July 10-16th, to make magic and ritual, weave new dreams, and co-create the world we want to live in. Be ready! Although we gather for just a week, the invitation extends into the rest of your life. This year's camp be held in western Oregon with Portland as the closest Airport.

Registration is required to attend this gathering, and our location will be announced only to registered campers. Please register by July 1st. When you register, you'll be asked to answer some intention questions as well as to commit to several agreements to ensure the integrity of our container. For Registration and additional information, visit our website — http://freewitchcamp.org/registration

Our story this year is Feasting with Ghosts: The Dance of Is, Was, Becoming. This is a story that was birthed in sacred space and dreamtime, shaped, and will continue to evolve as camp approaches and through our magic together at camp.

Feasting with Ghosts: The Dance of Is, Was, Becoming
In the time of our decedents, they will tell the tales of these days at their feasts, singing about the days of now as they surround themselves with tribe and community. The old ones will speak about the days when many lived in the grip of addiction to a dominant culture that repressed our spirits, silenced our souls, suffocated the breath of life within us. This story is a story about how out of the South the great winds of change came, and the waters of healing from the West flowed. and we began to remember the song of the Earth that the mountains in the North sing, and to dance the new dawning visions of the East. Moving through regret, homelessness, hopelessness, isolation and our yearning for belonging, we face the hungry ghosts that whisper to us in our dreams and waking life, the ghosts of our choices and our inaction, the ghosts of our addictions and lost dreams, and we listen to the words of the Ancestors. We learn to dance with the ghosts, to decipher the teachings within the depths of their shadows. We find the sustenance that nourishes our community, our magic, and the healing of the generations and the earth. Together, we will feast on that bounty and rekindle a life connected to deep time and deep magic. Together, we will reawaken what it means to be alive at this time of turning tides and reclaimed wisdom.

Read the whole story: http://freewitchcamp.org/theme-story/

What is Free Cascadia Witchcamp?
Free Cascadia Witchcamp is a week-long intensive that explores Reclaiming-inspired magic, ritual, and activism for all levels of experience, while creating and tending culture centered around weaving collective magic to aid and support each other and the earth. Free Cascadia is a consent-based, gender-safe, and sex-positive camp, and welcome children and well-behaved pets. The food we serve is mostly vegan with some vegetarian options, and this is our first year anchoring our own field kitchen. FCWC is unique in the realm of witchcamps in that we exist in the NOTAFLOF tradition (no one turned away for lack of funds) which makes our camp accessible to many who can't afford to spend $500 on a Reclaiming Witchcamp - as such we ask for donations to cover our costs. We are a Do-It-Yourself and participatory camp; it's only by coming together as community is camp able to happen!

What to Expect:
Throughout the week we will enrich our magical skills through daily paths, affinity groups, optional offerings, and community rituals. Like other Witchcamps, FCWC is organized around Paths which meet every day. Each Path, led by two or more co-facilitators, will explore a different focus of magic in action. You will choose your Path (or it will choose you) once you arrive. You are encouraged to stay with the same Path throughout the week, which can lead to a deeper understanding of the Path's focus. Affinity groups provide a smaller container to connect with and support others who share an affinity. Optional offerings is a time when anyone can share a skill or project. In the evenings, the entire camp gathers for ecstatic ritual and shared magic. During this time we feed the cauldron and step into our collective power.

This year's Paths and Facilitators:
Free Cascadia Witchcamp offers multiple paths by Reclaiming teachers, and we also anticipate community-led paths being announced at Camp. For those that want to know more about our Teaching Team and Paths, this is what we have for you so far. Keep checking the website for details:

* a Healing and Herbs Path with Laura Maples & Riyana
* The Stain of Consequences: Persephone, Pomegrantes, and Passages with Irisanya & Phoenix La Fae
* Lov’N Elements with C.Eddy & friends
* Youth Tribe with Aspen & friends

What is Reclaiming? (from the principles of unity - http://www.reclaiming.org)
Reclaiming is a spiritual tradition founded on the belief that the earth is alive and all of life is sacred and interconnected, whose practice arises from a deep, spiritual commitment to the earth, to healing and to the linking of magic with political action. Our tradition honors the wild, and calls for service to the earth and the community. We value peace and practice non-violence. We welcome all genders, all races, all ages and sexual orientations and all those differences of life situation, background, and ability that increase our diversity. We work for all forms of justice: environmental, social, political, racial, gender and economic. We strive to create and sustain communities and cultures that embody our values, that can help to heal the wounds of the earth and her peoples, and that can sustain us and nurture future generations.

Let us dance this Great Spell together,

- FCWC Organizing Team 2011
moc.liamg|pmachctiwaidacsaceerf#moc.liamg|pmachctiwaidacsaceerf

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License