Wild Ginger Witches

Welcome to the home of Wild Ginger WitchCamp!

Wild Ginger is in Ontario, Canada. It is an annual 5-day camp based in the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft. It is a multi-gendered and multi-generational community of people interested in earth-based spirituality, social justice, environmental justice, magic, and fun.

June 17 – 21, 2020 will be our 23rd camp and we can’t wait to see you!

The theme for the 23rd camp will be announced in January 2020

Camp 22: The Pentacle of Birth: Becoming the World We Seek

This year Wild Ginger has chosen to work with the symbol of the Pentacle. For many of us the Pentacle is a symbol of Witchcraft in general and many of us define ourselves as witches, but Pentacle work goes deeper than that.

Pentacle work is one of the foundations of our tradition, Iron Pentacle and the Pentacle of Pearl being two of the four Reclaiming Core Classes. It is sort of expected that people who work in our tradition are at least familiar with them both.

However, because Reclaiming is the open-ended tradition that it is, over the years many Pentacles have sprung up. After all, the Pentacle reflects our human 5-pointed skeletal structure (head, two strong legs, two creative arms).

Reclaiming and Feri (part of our Reclaiming foundations) practitioners everywhere have developed their own pentacles. Some examples include The ‘Amethyst Pentacle’ of Storm Fairy Wolf, the ‘Warrior Pentacle’ of T. Thorn Coyle, the ‘Pentacle of the Great Turning’ that arose out of Free Cascadia Camp, and many, many others. You may have developed a personal Pentacle as part of your own spiritual practice.

The Pentacle we developed for this year’s camp came out of our desire to Birth ourselves anew; as individuals, as a community, as a culture. We looked at the aspects of bringing something, anything

To Birth.

We settled on Contemplation, Conception, Quickening (or gestation), Transition, Birth & Contemplation

These are the points of our Star. You will find them reflected in the ritual Arc and in Path work during Wild Ginger 2019.

We ask you to Contemplate …

What do YOU bring to Birth?

Camp 21: Wild Ginger 2018

Air we are, Fire we are, Water, Earth, and Spirit, we are!

Claiming our Birthright as Elemental Beings

Deep Listening to what the Elements want of us now

Working magic through consciousness, intention, focus, and skill

Camp 20: Wild Ginger 2017

ReclaimingPandora

The Myth of Pandora 

By Charlene Spretnak

From Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon Press, 1978.

Earth-Mother had given mortals life. This puzzled them greatly. They would stare curiously at one another, then turn away to forage for food. Slowly they found that hunger has many forms.

One morning the humans followed an unusually plump bear cub to a hillside covered with bushes that hung heavy with red berries. They began to feast at once, hardly aware of the tremors beginning beneath their feet. As the quaking increased, a chasm gaped at the crest of the hill. From it arose Pandora with Her earthen pithos. The mortals were paralyzed with fear but the Goddess drew them into Her aura.

I am Pandora, Giver of All Gifts. She lifted the lid from the large jar. From it She took a pomegranate, which became an apple, which became a lemon, which became a pear. I bring you flowering trees that bear fruit, gnarled trees hung with olives and, this, the grapevine that will sustain you. She reached into the jar for a handful of seeds and sprinkled them over the hillside. I bring you plants for hunger and illness, for weaving and dyeing. Hidden beneath my surface you will find minerals, ore, and clay of endless form. She took from the jar two flat stones. Attend with care My plainest gift: I bring you flint.

Then Pandora turned the jar on its side, inundating the hillside with Her flowing grace. The mortals were bathed in the changing colors of Her aura. I bring you wonder, curiosity, memory. I bring you wisdom. I bring you justice with mercy. I bring you caring and communal bonds. I bring you courage, strength, endurance. I bring you loving kindness for all beings. I bring you the seeds of peace.

We have a community list on Yahoo Groups where we share camp information and related materials.

You can reach us at wildgingerwc@gmail.com or at our Facebook page at Wild Ginger Witch Camp if you have any questions or wish to be added to our community list.

Directions to Unicamp may be found here

Principles of Unity

“My law is love unto all beings…”
– from The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valiente

The values of the Reclaiming tradition stem from our understanding that the earth is alive and all of life is sacred and interconnected. We see the Goddess as immanent in the earth’s cycles of birth, growth, death, decay and regeneration. Our practice arises from a deep, spiritual commitment to the earth, to healing and to the linking of magic with political action.

Each of us embodies the divine. Our ultimate spiritual authority is within, and we need no other person to interpret the sacred to us. We foster the questioning attitude, and honor intellectual, spiritual and creative freedom.

We are an evolving, dynamic tradition and proudly call ourselves Witches. Our diverse practices and experiences of the divine weave a tapestry of many different threads. We include those who honor Mysterious Ones, Goddesses, and Gods of myriad expressions, genders, and states of being, remembering that mystery goes beyond form. Our community rituals are participatory and ecstatic, celebrating the cycles of the seasons and our lives, and raising energy for personal, collective and earth healing.

We know that everyone can do the life-changing, world-renewing work of magic, the art of changing consciousness at will. We strive to teach and practice in ways that foster personal and collective empowerment, to model shared power and to open leadership roles to all. We make decisions by consensus, and balance individual autonomy with social responsibility.

Our tradition honors the wild, and calls for service to the earth and the community. We value peace and practice non-violence, in keeping with the Rede, “Harm none, and do what you will.” We work for all forms of justice: environmental, social, political, racial, gender and economic. Our feminism includes a radical analysis of power, seeing all systems of oppression as interrelated, rooted in structures of domination and control.

We welcome all genders, all gender histories, all races, all ages and sexual orientations and all those differences of life situation, background, and ability that increase our diversity. We strive to make our public rituals and events accessible and safe. We try to balance the need to be justly compensated for our labor with our commitment to make our work available to people of all economic levels.

All living beings are worthy of respect. All are supported by the sacred elements of air, fire, water and earth. We work 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.

Reclaiming Principles of Unity – consensed by the Reclaiming Collective in 1997. Updated at the BIRCH council meeting of Dandelion Gathering 5 in 2012.

Sourced from: http://www.reclaiming.org/about/directions/unity.html