Facilitators ’15

Alex

I have been living in the Upper Mississippi Valley, specifically South Minneapolis, since 2008 and I call Winter Witchcamp and Twin Cities Reclaiming my home communities. My first call into this spiritual tradition was through British Reclaiming in 2004. Before then, I had practiced what I would now call eclectic Paganism, including Reclaiming and Feri based magic, while searching for hearth and kin. Having been brought up in Rome, Italy and having spent all my summers and high holidays in Francofonte, Sicily, where my mom hails from, I have always felt close to the Mysterious Ones and their various manifestations. The temples, sacred sites and stories of mainly Roman and Greek deities were part of my daily landscape and whispered promises of other times and places where polytheism was possible, and when gender-bending femininity and queerness were seen as sacred. The Norse mysterious ones, and the runes called to me for a long time. It was when I came to Winter Camp in 2005 following Freya’s call, that I found meaning and home for that calling. I consider myself a heathen witch, devoted to Freya, Proserpina and Isis, and deepening my relationships with Ganesha and Kwan Yin as daily companions, as well as other Mysterious Ones, such as the Bear, the Bees, the Dragon, and the Ass/Donkey clans. I nurture my relationships to ancestors of blood and spirit, and treasure my descendants of blood and spirit. As a person with white privilege, I strive to challenge white supremacy in my everyday life and spiritual practices, questioning cultural appropriation while honoring my relationships to mystery and remaining accountable to beloved communities. I am a trans masculine, genderqueer, disabled, Reclaiming Feri and Queer Mysteries initiate, parent, mentor, family therapist, scholar, priestess, immigrant, community organizer and writer, who strives to live an integrated life and has a life-long passion for social justice. My hearth and communities are central to my life and practices, and I feel deeply honored and grateful to connect with the Cascadia Freecamp community this year.

Abel G.

…is ever in love with the unfolding grace of the Star Goddess. He has been involved in Reclaiming since Brigid 2007, studying, organizing, priestessing, and teaching with the Bay Area community. A Reclaiming Tradition priest and Shakta Tantra initiate, his personal practice is rooted in devotion, gratitude, song, and magic. Abel recently completed his MA degree in religious studies, researching intersection of land, ritual, and identity in Native North America. His organizing includes work within Latin@, queer, and environmental justice communities. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Abel is gearing up for his next adventure as a doctoral student in occupied Haudenosaunee territory of upstate New York.

Brenna Bell

…is a witchy goat farmer, activist lawyer and magical mama whose own children have grown up in Free Cascadia Witch Camp’s Pixie Path. She brings in a love of storytelling, singing and play to this magical path, as well as a deep reverence for the parts of nature others may find scary, like large predators and wildland fire. She is happiest while engaged in radical subversive magic, in its many shapes and colors.

burdock

…will be a 3rd year camper and 2nd year hearth path facilitator. A dedicated kitchen witch who has been crafting for large magickal gatherings for 3 years. muliti-faceted young trans creature, tending many edges. pretty freaky. loves dandelions and dirt.

jacín glitterdirt

I am a waxing moon and high tide wearing down the concrete at the water’s edge. I am the sweet and surprising scent of night blooming jasmine carried on a breeze at midnight. I am a delicate skeleton leaf journeying on a river current to the ocean. I am of mixed ethnicity, Mexican on my father’s side and German/ Irish (and more) on my mother’s side. I have pink skin so people often make assumptions about my ethnicity. I am an unresolved, complicated mixture of much. This is my 6th year at Free Camp and 2nd year as an organizer. I have learned and practice some wonderful tools from the witchcraft and anarchist traditions (among others) to help me, alone and with others, to actively engage the world at this time, to nurture how i/we want to be alive and relate in the here and now (and world being born). My feet are often dirty, and I like them that way.

Jude Elf

…lives for paradigm shifts, lightbulb moments,ecstatic transformative ritual and deep personal magic. She rejoices in sharing her passion for connecting to the divine through music, dance, and song.

A life long activist, she loves 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.

A song catcher, fire spinner, green witch and moon dancer, she teaches magic and sacred sexuality, and offers pastoral services including support with rites of passage.

She has taught at, and helped organize, Reclaiming Witchcamps throughout the U.S. for over a decade. A member of Kidsfest, she helps to facilitate large public rituals that gather the community to turn the wheel and honor the seasons. She lives at Milkweed Farm, a community in Northern Vermont where she delights in the fey and elements of nature and Mysterious Creatures Art Collective in Oakland fomenting beautiful revolution through art and community.

junebug

Witch, meditator, facilitator, singer dancer. This year will be my 5th year participating in Free Cascadia Witchcamp and second year organizing. I’m a practicing psychotherapist by trade, currently working to help young people who have substance use problems. I practice embodied, person centered, creative expression, and mindfulness based therapy. I’m an anarcho-something-or-other, founded and participated in several long running Santa Cruz anarchist projects. I’m a budding energy healer and ritual planner with experience facilitating worships in Tarot divination, dance/movement therapy, group process and psychodrama.

Ian Waisler

…ian waisler is a faggot and astrologer whose practice draws from ongoing studies of language, ritual, yoga, and mystery. the work of claiming our lives, bound up in words and symbols and bodies, is a glorious and formidable task. he is honored to share it with you. he lives in oakland, ca.

Kenneth Winter

…was initiated into a feminist based service path of Witchcraft in 1989, in St. Louis, MO. His graduating thesis at defending “Wicca As An Authentic Religion,” convinced a board compromised of Christian, Jewish and Buddhist scholars that Wicca was indeed a authentic religion. A class has been offered at Webster University for the last fifteen years on Wicca. Kenneth believes in theology in action and has been a activist/artist for most of his life. After moving to the Bay Area and studying for a masters in feminist theology and goddess traditions, Kenneth embraced action rather than words as a spiritual expression. He walks a more direct shamanistic experiential path and prefers ritual to be spontaneous and appropriate to the situation. He has been actively priesting in alchemical fire circles for the last several years as a member of the Spark Collective. Kenneth founded a temple to inspiration and creation, Mysterious Creatures Art Collective in 2010, and spends his days fomenting rebellion in beautiful ways.

oso meloso

Inside our bellies there’s a seed. One that came from inside the ground. Planted by the ancestors burned. A seed willing and wild and hungry and fierce. I can feel mine in my belly and do my best to help it grow.

rain crowe

…has organized and facilitated for Free Cascadia Witch Camp for eight out of her nine years of attendance. She is a wild and Reclaiming witch, a teacher, and community priestess serving in varied and unique capacities to midwife resilient kinship circles and regional networks, a decolonization of the imagination, and collective liberation for a beyond our lifetime vision. To learn more about to what she belongs, and her work, visit rain’s blog »

Rose May Dance

…b. 1948, an anarcho-frenzied feminist witch. Pisces sun, Pisces rising, Leo moon. I have grown wily in the ways of the Goddess, whom I have worshiped since 1979, but am a life-long religious nut. Having been in Reclaiming a heck of a long time (1981), I participate in the life of the tradition. I am an energy worker, healer and explorer of the realms within and beyond. I have taught witchcraft and related subjects since the 80s, and have been politically active in direct action politics and affinity groups since that time as well. I observe birds and revel in nature worship. Heavy on the devotional side of magical practice, and somewhat skilled in ritual making and healing, my co-teachers have branded me a whacked-out mystic. I have taught in community since 1981 and in witchcamps since the beginning. am retired from many years of work in research with injection drugs users around public health issues. In 2005 I became a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, and I practice in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rumi says “Let the beauty you love be what you do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. ”