Wild Ginger's History and Structure

In 1997, at Vermont Witchcamp, 20 or so Canadian witches gathered themselves into a circle on the grassy hill by the dining hall, and had lunch together. Some of us were new to Witchcamp and some of us had been to other Witchcamps in the U.S.. ALL of us were thinking the same thing that day: Ontario Witchcamp!

And so, in Southern Ontario, where most of us live, we gathered again. and again. and again. We created potlucks. We created ritual and magic and ecstacy. We invited some other witches out to play, and in 1998, we created Wild Ginger Witchcamp, little sister to our beloved Vermont camp. Our first year was enchanting, radiant and wildly bewitching. For two short days, more than 30 witches lived between the worlds and forged the framework of our Wild Ginger Community.

We relied on the Reclaiming Model of Witchcamp as our template and over 7 years of visioning, planning, designing, and playing, Wild Ginger has transformed from maiden to mother. We are not all the same folks who planned that first camp. Some of the organizers have been spinning the web since inception, and we have been blessed with new air (ideas) and fire (energy) and water (love) and earth (muscle) each year since.

We began as a group of equals with a shared vision of creating magic in community, of honouring the earth, connecting with the sacred, and raising energy to fire up the political and spiritual activism that transforms the world. We have morphed and shifted, laughed and howled, undulated and ululated, danced and sang and drummed like the wild child. While we have definitely grown up, we continue to nurture the wild. With the basic organizing and design in place, our annual camp planning unfolds over 3 all day meetings, a few committees, and about a billion e.mails. The Organizing Gingers are, at present, all women from Southern Ontario, Northern Ontario, and Northern U.S.A.

The Wild Ginger Community is a similar geographic mix of folks – mostly women, with more men and children joining our family friendly camp each year. We have planted our roots deep into the summerlands of the Universal Unitarians and we continue to honour and appreciate the partnership that is being shaped and forged with each turn of the wheel. Our vision of community witching continues to hold strong and every year we find new ways to share the responsibilities of creating camp and ritual with the larger community. And every year, the Wild Ginger community responds with love and support.