We are delighted to announce that the sixth Dragon Rise camp will take place from Wednesday 7th August to Sunday 11th August 2019 to be held at the glorious Druid-owned Wildways on the Borle – the site of our fourth camp, and where we hope to have found a permanent home.

With a host of furious fancies
Whereof I am commander,
With a burning spear and a horse of air,
To the wilderness I wander.

Have you ever been an outsider? Have you ever wanted to be truly wild?

In a dream, a dark-blue-skinned woman appears, fierce, cunning, and wise. She whispers, “There is a place beyond this village, beyond the known. Some are driven there through injustices, some drawn by their very natures, and others still are called there by the more-than-human world. This place you might call the wild. It is both inside and outside of you”. You now remember the green bloods and the rocks and the stones and the rolling hills. Can you hear their call?

You run away into the wild green and the black. You know that the heath and the forest are full of terrors, and the meres and pools are inhabited by spirits – there are tree-people; the sylphs of air and undines of water, dryads and the ancestral dead; the shape-shifters; wights and marsh beings and some that simply look like mist – yet still you go. What makes you run? What are you afraid of? What are you running towards?

Feet stepping into the forest, you are far from alone in this landscape of spirits – some friend, some foe – and others still indifferent to the human- all very much alive. After a while you sense you are being followed. You try to hide but still something follows. Finally you call for help and then immediately a being appears. They ask a riddle and tell you to wait and think before answering. They will ask for the answer later. If you are wrong there will be a price. Can you trust them? You agree and, eventually, the being consents to be your Ally and a compact is made.

The Ally shows you; how to make talismans and fetishes; the songs of entry to the land; how to be stealthy as the wild ones are; how to make offerings to your ancestors; how to camouflage yourself and warns you to make sure you partake of no stranger’s hospitality (lest it bind you). The Ally explains the importance of cunning. They are your Guide and they take you to meet monsters, gods and spirits, shapeshifters and hags.